Reviewing the 5Ds manga in my Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds marathon.

I just finished reading the nine volume of the Yugioh 5Ds manga and I have to say I quite enjoyed them. Though I think I still prefer the Fortune Cup and Dark Signer arcs of the anime I can say the 5Ds manga was way more enjoyable than the WRGP, but I guess that's not saying much for some. So right now I just want gush over the things I enjoyed about this run.

What I loved and enjoyed the most.

The Artwork: The art is amazing. The Yugioh mangas always have great art, I remember loving the ones in the GX manga. This one was fantastic. The characters are drawn so beautifully as are the duels. These duels are visually stunning and have some of my favorite action scenes in Yugioh. I advise everyone to look up the artwork for this beautiful manga.

Jack Atlas: I love Jack. He's my favorite rival character in all of Yugioh. The manga made him a even bigger threat. No longer a paper champion, Jack is the real deal. He beats Yusei in their first duel and continues to showcase what a powerhouse he is all through the manga. Even in some duels I thought he would lose, Jack defined all and was a real badass with some of the best lines. All his new cards especially that King Calamity Red Dragon were goated.

Crow Hogan: I actually think this version of Crow fit much better in with the main cast than he did in the anime, that might be a hot take. Crow doesn't take anyone's spot so his inclusion was far more natural here. This is my favorite version of Crow over his two anime roles in 5Ds and Arc V.

Leo/Rua and Luna/Ruka: I've complained about how badly the anime treated Luna/Ruka. While she's still a secondary character here, the manga did a really cool twist with the twins. They have a duel runner so now they are allowed access to intense duels they normally are left out of. In a crazy twist of fate Luna takes Akiza's role from the anime as the creepy dark girl that Yusei must duel to save. I love how Leo and Luna's manga deck works with Luna supplying the monsters with her cute forest creatures, and Leo turning them into Morphtronics via this goofy big helmets. It was adorable. Ancient Pixie Dragon was treated like a beast of a boss monster card for Yusei to overcome and the visual of Stardust Spark Dragon fighting it, and Power Mecha Tool Dragon is peak. Yusei vs the twins round 2 is my favorite duel of the 5Ds manga, and Luna got the respect the anime never gave her as a duelist. I hope her manga forest cards get printed.

Yusei Fudo: The main lead. I enjoyed Yusei in the anime and I like him just as well here too. I liked his cool guy backstory and his relationship with the manga original Sect. I also like how he entered a tournament not to save anyone initially but because he wanted to duel Jack for sheer pride reasons. Saving everyone happened as he was in the tournament. This version of Yusei had more of a mature Jaden Yuki feel.

Kalin Kessler: No matter what the version, this guy is great. This time he had a more of a backstory with Jack than Yusei, but it was still very compelling.

Duel Dragons: They are the anime Signer dragons with new abilities and there are more of them. Not limiting them to just five/six prevents the "Crow problem" from happening and allowed others like Rex and Kalin to have cool dragons too, which was great to see.

5Ds Track Shorts: The track shorts that were by the authors and artist were very insightful and were equally as interesting to learn about them and the behind the scenes as reading the manga itself.

Now for the things I enjoyed but could have been improved upon.

Sect Ijuin: I really like Sect. He's basically a manga Rally that's more involved with the plot and was a big motivation for Yusei. Funny enough his dynamic with Yusei is what I always imagined Jaden and Syrus should have had in GX. I guess my only complaint with Sect is they could have just used Rally for the role. But yeah, Sect's cool enough.

Akiza Izinski: The leading lady of 5Ds. Like the anime version, manga Akiza starts off really strong. She's a psychic, got a Duel Runner from the start, was the queen of her Duel Academy with a snazzy outfit, is shown to be on equal footing with Yusei and Jack, and had great and emotional early duels with Sherry and Kalin. But after that she really falls off her Duel Runner. Of the original Signer Dragons, the Black Rose Moonlight Dragon was the least impressive. She gets possessed by a priestess and it just comes out of nowhere, loses, gets captured than saved and that's it. Started off great with a meh ending. Never thought I'd see the day when Luna was more interesting than Akiza. Her other non-dragon manga cards were pretty cool though.

Skeleton Knight: A really cool character who you think is an original character but it turns out he's actually one we knew from the anime. The only bad thing about Skeleton Knight is the weird backstory that he and Goodwin have.

Rex Goodwin: This is tricky. I think his two decks are great. Very end boss duelist with unfair, godly cards that are OP and very situational but the spectacle of the duel itself makes up for it. I especially love Goodwin's Celestial deck with his Duel Dragon. Duelist wise I prefer manga Rex Goodwin over his Dark Signer half from the anime. But character wise, the backstory was just really out there and weird, and I don't think it was explained as well as it could have been.

The Duel Priest: I like the idea of them, especially with the previous owners of the Duel Dragons essentially being Team 5Ds in another life. Had a very old school Yu-Gi-Oh to it and with the history of the riding duels. I just wish this concept was fleshed out more to have a bigger impact.

Rush ending: I could tell towards the end they were rushing. Not everything was great but for the most part they got the important stuff. But a few extra chapters couldn't have hurt.

And now for the things I didn't like.

Rex, Skeleton Knight, Ish backstory: I think this was suppose to be emotional. It could have been if it was told better and clarified it more. I don't even think they explain how Rex is still alive after 5000 years or so.

Carly: Carly only appears in one little panel cheering on Jack. That's it. Just one panel. Even Mina got to appear here and there, and was present at the end when Jack loses his title and she collapses into depression.

Sense: What exactly is Sense? Some kind of power that happens when in a riding duel? I wouldn't mind it so much but they really make a big deal about it to the point it's distracting at times.

Missed opportunities: With the Duel Dragons not fixed to a number I was hoping to see maybe Greiger and Sherry get dragons and second duels. But maybe it's for the better.

So that's my thoughts on the 5Ds manga. Sorry for the wall of text I just wanted to write down my thoughts. Overall I enjoyed it more than the GX manga though it had some of the same issues. For anyone who read the 5Ds manga what were your thoughts on it?