#queuegioh 5ds

We all know Aki is your favourite yugioh character in 5ds

My question is, if you had to do an anime mini series focusing on her, how would you do it, and what would the plot be about?

This has been sitting in my inbox for an unfortunate amount of time and idk when it's going up, but I wanted to answer it before the year is over!

So.I'm going to assume that by "miniseries" you mean a tiny spin-off with Aki at the centre that's still loosely connected to canon, so I'll base my answer off of that.

If I were given the reigns to a miniseries where Aki gets to be the protagonist, it could go either of two ways: Either I make a plot-heavy arc to tie up some of her loose ends, or I do something more light-hearted that focusses on the less important shenanigans she gets up to when she's not on screen.

If I gave her a plot-heavy miniseries, I would focus, as one might expect, on the Arcadia Movement. Canon left a lot of loose ends and a lot to be desired on that front and it's just begging to be adressed in-depth. With a miniseries, probably situated during the timeskip between the DS and pre-WRGP arc, I'd try to properly adress the fallout of the movement. There's a good chance I'd reuse elements from Fields of Arcadia for that. I'd dig into how Aki's readjusting to normal society, how her re-enrollment in duel academy works out, and how Arcadia's sudden, violent downfall is probably still on her mind. She'd probably start digging through files in this one, too. But for a miniseries, I'd probably go beyond that and maybe let her seek out some former members, too. Really get to the bottom of what Arcadia was doing behind the curtains and who was involved in it. Who knows, maybe I'd let her track down Carly's help (or Carly involves herself by accident because she can't help her curiosity) and they try to chase down as much information as possible. The rest of the usual crew would be the supporting cast, helping out with occasional enquiries. To give the whole thing some tension, let's say Aki gets "inspired" to dig into the movement by hearing that someone is trying to revive it, hoping to take Divine's place as the new leader. It follows that after countless hours of tiring research and probably a couple of scrapes with the "new" Arcadia Movement (with Aki gratuitously learning to appreciate her powers by using them to defend people, naturally), the minseries would conclude with her taking down the person trying to revive the movement and becoming comfortable with her new life outside the movement and her powers. (Meaning she would mostly be in the same position we meet her in at the start of the pre-WRGP arc, just proooobably without the later nonsense of her losing her powers and then declaring they were a curse before regaining them anyway. Yes, I still have beef with that.)

If I went with the funnier, but less intense option of making a miniseries about Aki's off-screen antics, however, I would absolutely stage something like a duel academy tournament. Same timeframe, and for some tenser elements, I would also add the idea of Aki trying to readjust to normal academy life back in. It's a familiar environment, but it has bad memories attached to it, and Aki wouldn't immediately have a good time adjusting. What better way to get her from weird outsider who comes back to school with some strange rumours attached to her to star student who can duel every bragging bully into the ground than an academy tournament? It wouldn't be as massive as the WRGP, of course, but I could see it going from at least a round of sixteen down to the finale. Aki might even hesitate about entering at first (because she doesn't want to garner negative attention again), but her new friends encourage her to. And again, the signers would probably make for the supporting cast. Rua and Ruka would obviously be right there in the academy with Aki, giving them some more attention, too. Rua joining the tournament (depending on whether or not it's an academy-wide or older-students-only tournament) is optional. (But would make for a fun match where they're both giving their all and Aki doesn't have to worry about being judged because he likes her, leading to her showing off how fucking good she is at duelling and how much fun she can have with it if people allow her to. Added bonus of being able to show how much Rua has progressed.) Throw in some bullies Aki puts in their place along the way, and some students (or even other tournament participants) she befriends, and bam. A fun time for everyone involved. (I think it goes without saying that Aki wins the tournament.)