After losing Ed to Amon, 146 shows us the trauma and guilt really setting into Judai, and how he feels that finding Johan is giving him a reason to keep moving; Ryou sees the fire in him has died and tries to get him to snap out of it, but he sees how Judai's been left with trauma about using his Fusion card given the havoc he wreaked as Supreme King and tells Judai that he won't be able to save anyone like that. He takes some time to recompose himself after his heart trouble ended his duel with Judai early, while Judai walks off to do some soul-searching and finds his way back to the areas we stopped in earlier in the arc (which the dub feels the need to have Jaden audibly tell us). Guardian Baou then challenges him hoping to succeed the Supreme King, ultimately being defeated in 147 as Judai manages a cool combo using Hero Mask, Edgeman, and Feather Shot, and after Misawa tells us about how the twelve universes are being forced into one--and that Judai's use of his Supreme King side will be crucial to stop it, prompting Shou to wonder if Judai will perfect himself by combining with that side--Ryou is greeted by Johan, who of course it turns out has Yubel possessing him. But knowing his time is short, Ryou challenges Johan to a duel, and I always love how it culminates in this bit of a swan song for him in 148 as his use of Power Bond gives his Cyber End a record ATK value. His sendoff is sweet, and while you could argue Ryou could have voiced a word or two of love for Shou as Zane does in the dub, it makes sense he focused on his journey and the hope he and the others have that Judai can make a miracle happen and rescue them--and the love between them is still there, through Shou's piercing "Brother!!" shout which always gives me chills (thanks, Masami Suzuki). Overall, a good trio of episodes, and the animation from Kyoung Soo Lee's team in 146 and Tea Sun In's in 148 (including cuts from Gil bo Noh) are always a treat.

In terms of animation fixes, each episode actually had a fair few, though mostly quality-of-watching things like split-screen stuff. There were a few big ones, though: a couple of card errors, the return of a specific strapping issue, and some Duel Disk-related stuff. Details past the end of the post below for the interested, as always!

Housekeeping-wise, I've re-uploaded episodes 134 and 145; 134 was updated to fix an additional piece to the fourth Glow Moss fix I did where I missed that Neos was also missing on Judai's Disk as he summoned the former through Common Soul (the correction), while 145 had its preview updated with the correct fiery scene as we see Judai's war flashbacks keeping him from using Fusion (I assumed it wasn't used or was changed to be blueish as that's the version that appears in 146 proper after he visualizes the Supreme King and panics before playing Clayman, but the original preview fades into it as pulled from after the eyecatch during Judai's soul-searching lol). The links in their respective release posts will be updated, and I'll post the updated hardsub/DVDRip/MKV (134) and hardsub (145) over on NAC with 146-148.

(Also, bumping my one slight housekeeping request, if anyone knows any anime song cover artists that do Italian covers; since I'll be coming up on finalizing my Season 4 work sometime in 2026 [hopefully], I still want to incorporate the Italian dub into my releases given that it starts to be adapted straight from the Japanese version as of episode 156, and I'd really like to commission Italian covers of Teardrop and The Sun [even if just for one episode], as well as Precious Time, Glory Days and Endless Dream for S4 proper. [Worst-case I'll check Fiverr maybe, but thought I'd ask for some leads on some good ones first lol 🙏🏽])

With all that out of the way, enjoy! These being done means it's back to TFSP for a bit, as I work through the rest of the ZEXAL cast's in-duel lines before starting the OW text for the ARC-V Tier 2 characters; I should have another progress post previewing the ZEXAL OW text once those in-duel lines are done. Once that's done, I'll work on finalizing GX 149-150 as Dark Johan takes on Amon. Stay tuned!

Fixes and Edits! (146)

After stopping Judai from going through the giant gate, Ryou notes that Johan is likely being held captive by someone; Judai gasps as Ryou then slides in on a split-screen to say that he doesn't sense that kind of will to fight radiating from him--and that it in fact looks like he's trying to escape through that gate, but his split slides onto the screen a frame before Judai's side of it starts to move for it. Fixed this in Sony Vegas by making Judai's side start moving as Ryou's split starts to slide on screen in that earlier frame.

A bit later, after Ryou uses his Armored Cyber End's Judgment Cannon to destroy Judai's set Hero Barrier, the two slide onto a split-screen as Ryou notes how, after using Spark Gun with Sparkman to destroy Armored Cybern on his last turn, he could have used it to fend off his Cyber End's attack; Ryou then prepares to fire another Judgment Cannon, and he moves to end the split-screen and do so a frame before Judai's split starts to move with him. Fixed this in Vegas so that the two start moving simultaneously on the same frame.

A bit after that, when Ryou's Armored Cyber End destroys Judai's set Emergency Call, Ryou and Judai slide in for another split-screen as Ryou puts all the hypotheticals together for Judai, but a few things happen: 1) the first frame of Ryou's split sliding in has it missing Judai's split, which takes an extra frame to start sliding in; 2) during the later shot of Sparkman in Ryou's explanation, as a split-screen forms to split Sparkman out into a shot of Spark Gun, there's a quick frame where each half of the split starts to move as though they're splitting apart but they're not actually split apart, as they are in the following frame; and 3) as the last shot of Spark Gun has a split-screen form that splits apart into a shot of Ryou, the first frame of the split-out has the right half missing a border. Fixed all in Vegas, first masking in Judai's split partially into the first frame as Ryou's split is sliding on screen, then just holding a frame of Sparkman still over the frame with the jittery move, and finally adding a border to the right Spark Gun split.

Later, as Baou and Judai start their duel and the LP counters appear, Baou starts a split-screen to taunt Judai about falling prey to his Devil Slime Mold, which Judai then joins to acknowledge before pushing the split-screen off to turn on his Disk, but two quick things happen: 1) the shot of them in the distance has Judai missing the orange highlighting to his hair, and 2) the first frame of Judai's split sliding into the full split-screen with Baou has it already a decent way into the frame, while the slide-in only lasts three frames to Baou's five. Fixed these by first using Photoshop to paint in the orange highlighting for Judai's hair (similar to an error fixed back in episode 42), and then as I worked that into the footage in Vegas I also made Judai's split's slide-in a bit smoother, lasting for five frames like Baou's for consistency.

A bit later, after another taunt by Baou about it seeming to be true that Judai can't use Fusion, Judai slides in for a split-screen as he gasps, surprised that Baou knew, but Baou moves for his split's slide-in a frame before he starts to slide on screen. Fixed in Vegas by starting Judai's split's slide-in a frame earlier, masking a bit of it into the frame in which Baou starts to move for it.

A bit after that, once Baou's Gravity Gain forces Burstlady to call off her attack, Judai groans as Baou slides into a split-screen to taunt him about his deck being weak without Fusion, but Baou's split starts to slide onscreen a frame before Judai moves for it, and it only slides in for three frames but Judai's side keeps moving an additional three frames after it stops. Fixed this in Vegas by timing Baou's split moving and Judai moving for it simultaneously, making each last the full six frames. Also, during the still parts of Baou's lips flapping, the shading under his bottom lip is a lighter purple like the highlight by his eye, when up until this it's been shown to be a darker purple--which he regains as he moves during the split-screen but loses again once he stops moving and keeps talking; I fixed this, as well, by recoloring the shading on each frame of his lip-flaps in Photoshop, recycling each as needed while he talks in Vegas.

Right after #6, Burstlady returns to Judai's field, but her right shoulder strap is missing, in an oft-reoccurring strapping issue for her. Fixed in Photoshop by drawing it in, then using Vegas to work the edit into the footage, repositioning it as she moves down to the ground.

Later, in the preview for 147, we see Judai turning to look at his hand, but the top of his backpack is miscolored; fixed this in Vegas, masking in the corrected footage from 147.

Also in the preview, we see Dark Johan with AGB Amethyst Cat out, but there's a black rectangle on his Disk where her card should be; I fixed this first in 147 proper and then masked in the fix here, using AfterEffects to slap in a proxy and use its motion tracking to work it into the footage, fading it out as it fades into the close-up of Dark Johan.

Fixes and Edits! (147)

After Dark Johan asks about Judai and Ryou quips about his way of greeting someone after they crossed dimensions to find him, Johan chuckles and turns to face Ryou, who slides in on a split-screen to ask him where he's been and what he's been doing, but Johan moves for the split-screen a frame before Ryou's split starts to slide on screen. Fixed in Vegas by timing Ryou's split's slide-in to start on the frame that Johan starts to move for it.

A bit later, after Chronos gets some distance from the duel starting as prompted by Ryou and Dark Johan, the latter two are on a split-screen before it splits apart to show them shouting "Duel!", but their splits get a little uneven by the last frame of the split-out, causing Ryou's split to take a frame longer to fully slide offscreen. Fixed this in Vegas by adjusting Ryou's split in that last frame to be more even with Johan's, then holding a still frame of the shot of them in the distance over the error frame with Ryou's delayed split-out.

After the eyecatch, after Judai and co catch up to Chronos to watch the duel, he notices that it's "Johan" that Ryou is facing--but as he sees him, there's a black rectangle where his AGB Amethyst Cat should be on his Disk. As noted under 146, I fixed this using AfterEffects to slap in a proxy and use its motion tracking to work it into the footage, fading it out as the shot fades into the close-up of Dark Johan.

After his Cyber Dragon's attack on Amethyst Cat led to Dark Johan's LP not decreasing, Ryou asks why; Dark Johan then slides in on a split-screen to explain Advanced Dark's damage-reduction effect, but the first frame of his slide-in has him just pop into place a fair way into the shot already, without Ryou moving for it, and his split's slide-in only lasts about 4-5 frames. Fixed in Vegas, first timing Johan's split slide-in and Ryou moving for it to be simultaneous, while making Johan's split slide-in for a smoother six frames like most other split-screen slide-ins.

A bit later, as he uses Fusion to summon Cyber Twin Dragon, we zoom out on him as he declares that he is, but Cyber Laser Dragon is missing in Monster Zone 4 on his Disk. Fixed in AfterEffects, slapping on a proxy and using its motion tracking (with a fair few adjustments) to re-zoom the proxy out before then panning it downward as the shot pans up to the Cyber Dragons fusing.

Fixes and Edits! (148)

After Ryou tells everyone that his heart might stop soon, Dark Johan is taken aback as he asks, "What?", but there's a quick movement frame as he does so (lasting three total frames) where a bang on the left side of his head loses its shading. Fixed in Photoshop by coloring the shading back in, and then working the edit into the footage in Vegas by re-panning it with the shot.

Later, Ryou uses Cyber Vary's effect to banish it and his Cybernetic Hidden Technology to draw two cards, but as the split-screen we see them being banished on splits apart to show him doing so, we see that the buttons along the "wing" of his Disk (the part which holds the right end of the Disk zones when off) are miscolored like his active Monster Zones. Fixed this in Photoshop by recoloring them back to their normal gray, then in Vegas by redoing the slide-out for the CHT split so that it slides offscreen on top of my edit, then panning the edit downward (and adding a linear blur) as the shot pans up to him looking at the cards.

A few seconds after #2, as Ryou uses Overload Fusion and gets joined by the dragons he's banishing, we see as the shot zooms out that his Disk wasn't fully drawn in, as everything past Monster Zone 3 along the Disk itself and part of the "wing" bit just above it is missing (with half of Monster Zone 4 drawn in). As covered here, fixed in Photoshop by splicing in that part of his Disk from a shot with it in a similar position and edited it into place, then used AfterEffects and its motion tracking (with several tweaks [mileage can vary when it comes to tracking scale]) to re-zoom the edit out, lighting it up as the light from the banishing bleeds onto his Disk.

After the eyecatch, as Ryou uses Power Bond and we see his big moments using them via flashback, the clip used from his use of it during his Graduation Duel with Judai uses the original footage of him activating it at the end of episode 51 and not the corrected footage in 52's recap of it, which had fixed his lip-flaps to be timed more accurately with his line. Fixed by reprising the episode-52 footage and redoing the flashback border around it. (Gifs to better show the difference; imagine him saying "Majikku kaado hatsudou! Powaa Bondo!" lol.)

A bit later, once he brings out his Cyber End and Dark Johan gasps, he slides in on a split-screen to explain that Power Bond doubles its ATK, they split apart to show Cyber End's ATK rising to 8000, but the first frame of the split-out shows Dark Johan's split without a border. Fixed in Vegas by quickly applying one.