Webtoon Spotlight

Random Spotlight#6: Yugioh Protags Ranked

#5/4: Yuma Tsukumo/Atem

Okay, so before you guys put me in the shadow realm for my shit opinion, let me explain my reasoning through their decks.

Yuma

Honestly, it bites that zexal seems to be so utterly despised by Yugioh fandom. I get that it was a big change and had its flaws, but when it was good, it was flipping amazing, and I always felt like it was a sort of soft reboot of the series. I also really appreciate Yuma's character a lot because I feel like he fits well with that reboot mindset. Having the main character be bad at your title game is a pretty refreshing twist as it made his partnership with Astral a lot more necessary than Yugi honestly and gave us something to look forward to (even if it did lead to several facepalms). All these factors combined created (at the time) the first real dynamic main character in the franchise as we saw him grow throughout the story instead of in the middle (which I will explain later). Don't get me wrong. I completely understand why Yuma gets the hate as he is rough to get into, but he has good qualities that only get better with time.

And I feel like these qualities can't be more exemplified in his deck. While I do understand why people don't like Yuma or his deck, a lot of people tend to forget his final duel against astral. Effectively Yuma's deck is Xyz Otk that is supposed to accomplish four objectives: easily bring out more Xyz monsters, use traps to negate or shave off damage, draw more cards to replenish your hands and to support said XYZ monsters with support cards. While originally, his deck was nothing special, his eos deck gave him far more synergy and support through the increased use of his "Gagaga" cards despite his reliance on opponents also having an XYZ monster. But the real stealer of the show is definitely in his ace: Hope.

All jokes aside, I think there is a reason why out of all of Yuma's numbers, Hope is always the most prevalent, and I think that the reason for that lies in the fact that at the end of the day, Yuma is Hope. Hope to be better, hope to have a second chance and hope to aim for the top when things get bad with his newest ace, Future King of Hope summarizes this development beautifully. And it was because of this hope Yuma was able to turn some of the most psychotically, unapologetically evil bastards in this series, into some of his best friends because I think he knows that deep down they can change and be better people like him. Many people in zexal viewed Yuma as nothing but a failure, but no matter how many times Yuma got knocked down, he almost always got back up and tried his absolute best to high five the sky; he proved that his seemingly impossible hopes are possible through dueling some of the most grossly unfair duelists in his verse with barely any help and surpassed astral. It's a shame that zexal didn't get another season since I think that another season of this more independent Yuma would have done a lot for his character.

Atem

Honestly, where do I even begin with this man? Over 20 years have come gone since he first took the screen and for a good reason. Out of all the portags, Atem truly does feel like the head honcho in many respects. His kingly nature has made every duel with him a treat as he rarely fully loses his cool. However, like many pharaohs before and after him, Atem's biggest issue was his pride, which led him to punish the guilty in ways that even now are hard to stomach and losses that haunted him for years to come. The best example of this and his character has to come in the form of ironically his best character moments.

Through his loss against Rapheal and Yugi's soul, Atem learned about not only his flaws but also the bitter taste of defeat. This self-reflection helped him learn how to confront the darkness within his own heart and became at peace with himself during the finale. Despite that though I think Atem has the opposite problem of Yugi, he ironically needed fewer duels and more character moments, as waking the dragons was I felt like the best the series did at fleshing out his character. His relationship with Yugi is great stuff and adds a level of symmetry that mirrors Yuma and astral contrast, but Yami needed more. I'm not saying he's bad; Atem is this series for a very good reason, and his moments will always stand out in anime history, but I just don't believe first always means best, and that shows in his deck.