Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!

Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!
Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!遊（ゆう）☆戯（ぎ）☆王（おう）ゴーラッシュ！！Yūgiō Gōrasshu!!
Anime series
Directed by	Nobuhiro Kondo
Studio	Bridge
Network	TV Tokyo
Original run	April 3, 2022 —
No. of episodes	105

Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! is the eighth Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and the seventh main spin-off series. It began airing in April 3, 2022.

The series stars Yudias Velgear as the main protagonist. Like its predecessor, Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, GO RUSH!! focuses on Rush Duels. The series introduces a new Type of monster, the Galaxy Type. GO RUSH!! also introduces Equip Spell Cards to Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel.

Episodes

Main articles: Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! episode listing (season 1) and Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! episode listing (season 2)

Synopsis

Promotional poster for Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!, depicting Yudias Velgear, Yuhi, Yuamu Ohdo, Zuwijo zir Velgear, Valvelgear, and Yudias' ace monsters: "Transamu Rainac‎" and "Galactica Oblivion"

Yuhi Ohdo and Yuamu Ohdo are elementary schooler twins living in Mutsuba Town who are in charge of the alien extermination company UTS (Ultraterrestrial Trouble Solutions). They spend their days working really hard searching for aliens using a mysterious device created by Yuhi... that is, until one fateful day!!

Right after they created a mystery school club, they finally found a real spaceship and inside of it, they made contact with Yudias, an alien from the distant Velgear Star Cluster.

Yudias has come to Earth, after he and his comrades were chased from his native star cluster, seeking a way to a new future, which "Rush Duel" seems like it might offer a means to do so, but knows nothing about it. Yuhi challenges the newbie Yudias to a Rush Duel in order to give him a helping hand. This is first contact between elementary school students and aliens, via Rush Duel!

Now it's time to enter the new stage of Rush Duel introduced by this alien soldier from the far ends of the galaxy!

Let's go, Go Rush!!

Continuity

Unlike many of the past spin-offs since Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! takes place in the same continuity as the previous series, Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS. It is set an unknown amount of time in the past, but features Rush Dueling and associated modern technology due to its introduction by Yuga Ohdo, the main protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, who was transported back in time after the climax of his Rush Duel with Otes.

The main Earth setting of the series, Mutsuba Town, appears to be the precursor to Goha City, sharing a similarly shaped coastline and central feature, Mutsuba Tower. Mutsuba Heavy Machinery and Ramen Hut operate in the town, though Goha Enterprises is only a small toy company and appropriately named Goha Company. Yudias Velgear uses a Goha Enterprises Duel Disk as opposed to the new model introduced by GO RUSH!!; the new model itself projects a blue "G" over its surface, possibly in reference to the Goha Company. This model of Duel Disk has never been seen by the general public and is later implied to be Yuga Ohdo's Duel Disk.

Despite taking place in the past, many of the developments during Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! do not seem to have been recorded in the present of Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS and Yuga's actions have not changed history, as he finds the future unchanged when he visits in Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! - Episode 062. Neither aliens, nor Rush Dueling existing in the past are known to have transpired. Kit Schrödinger speculates that Rush Dueling eventually became the Goha Dueling that Yuga invented Rush Dueling to free them from.

Several characters share surnames and voice actors with characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, and it has been suggested that some of them are ancestors of the SEVENS characters:

• Yuhi and Yuamu Ohdo share Yuga's surname, and speculate they are his ancestors.
• Manabu Sogetsu shares the surname and Japanese voice actor of Gavin Sogetsu, and closely resembles him. He is later confirmed to be descended from Gakugen Sogetsu, Gavin's ancestor, confirming the two are related.
• Manya Atachi shares the Japanese surname and voice actress of Mimi Imimi (Mimi Atachi in the Japanese version) and closely resembles her. In his dog form, Bochi closely resembles and shares a name with Graves (Bochi in the Japanese version), the pet dog of Hicks, a friend of Mimi's son Yosh Imimi; Bochi himself shares Yosh's voice actor.
• London Kirishima and Rovian Kirishima share the Japanese surname and voice actors of Roa Kassidy (Roa Kirishima in the Japanese version) and Romin Kassidy (Romin Kirishima in the Japanese version) and closely resemble them. Like Roa and Romin, London and Rovian are cousins.
• Makeru Kurimoto and Miranda Ichimaru resemble older versions of Masa and Cub and share their voice actors. Notably, neither Masa nor Cub had stated surnames in SEVENS.
• Ranran Nanahoshi shares the surname and Japanese voice actress of Rayne Nanahoshi, and closely resembles her. She is confirmed to be related to Rankage Nanahoshi and Rinkage Nanahoshi.
• Menjaburo Omori shares the Japanese surname and voice actor of Saburamen (Menzaburo Omori in the Japanese version) and closely resembles him.
• Netsuzo Shinjitsu shares the Japanese surname and voice actor of Scoop Pitman (Bakuro Shinjitsu in the Japanese version) and closely resembles him.
• The adult employees of UTS, Galixon Tazaki, Torey Yagi, Makiko Maki, Gurumi Purisaki, Mondai Omaeno, Gale Taira, Dabingo Arisugawa, and Manupilio Zomyoji closely resemble elderly versions of Galian Townsend (Galian Tazaki in the Japanese version), Briscoe (Nick Yagi in the Japanese version), Sushiko Maki, Gwendoline Purdy (Gibumi Purisaki in the Japanese version) in her civilian guise, Toombs (Ushiro Omaeno in the Japanese version), Tyler Getz (Getta Taira in the Japanese version), Janko Entant (Jango Arisugawa in the Japanese version) and Caterpillio Elephantis (Caterpillio Zomyoji in the Japanese version) respectively and share voice actors with their SEVENS counterparts.
  • Purisaki also has the stage name Princess Minstrel; Gwendoline Purdy had the stage name Princess G.
• Venus Ganiko resembles Celestia Noodlina, Terra Kneadalina, Prioria Sweetalina, Oceania Illumilina, Ghostia Taxilina and Konvoy Sagawa, sharing their collective Japanese voice actress and use of "ko" in one of her names. A figure resembling Celestia Noodlina is seen as a background character in the Alien Residential Area. Like the SEVENS characters, she also has doppelgangers, though they are confirmed to be her sisters, Venus Ganimi and Venus Ganie.
• Legal Arai resembles an elderly version of Buff Grimes (Arata Arai in the Japanese version) and shares his voice actor.
• Henry Honya resembles and shares the surname and voice actor of Booster Page (Braun Honya in the Japanese version). His sister Jane Honya resembles Valencia Siegle.
• Asaka Mutsuba, closely resembles and share the surname and Japanese voice actress of Asana Mutsuba. Her underling, Badlove Kayama, is an alien rock pigeon capable of human speech, resembling and sharing the voice actress of Pidgetrap Quill (Hatrap Kayama in the Japanese version).
• The president of the Goha Company is Yuna Goha, who initially uses Yuga's Deck, including his ace monster "Sevens Road Magician". In Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, the Goha Six were the presidents of Goha Enterprises and each referenced a previous Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series.
  • Furthermore, Yuna having her other alter egos with various hair colors reflecting the Attributes of Duel Monsters, who reference the Goha Six, this speculates that Yuna is based on Yuo Goha.
• The Creator shares his voice actor with Otes, and resembles his appearance when cloaked. It is eventually revealed that the Creator is actually Otes's Earthdamar, which ended up in the past after Otes's final Duel against Yuga, though he was sent further back than Yuga was. The Relic also appears with him, and has a similar prophecy engraved on it.
• The☆Lugh resembles Lucidien "Luke" Kallister and shares his voice actor; when Yuhi and Yuamu meet Luke himself in the future, they speculate The☆Lugh is his ancestor. His chief of staff, Zaion - known as The☆Providence when first introduced - resembles Nail Saionji and shares his voice actor. Though he and Nail do not share names, his real name sounds similar to Nail's surname. In SEVENS, Nail's philosophy in the Japanese version revolved around providence, while The Lukeman and "The" cards he used share the format of The☆Lugh and his servants' names. Both Luke and The☆Lugh are responsible for creating in-universe manga described as terrible: Luke drew The Lukeman and The☆Lugh drew the original manuscripts for Mr. Universe.
• Ehoko Kamijo, nicknamed "Epoch", resembles a younger Tiadosia Kallister (Haruka Kamijo in the Japanese version) and shares her voice actress. An obscured portrait of Valencian Kallister appears in the Kallister family mansion, suggesting he may be Epoch's ancestor. She can also use the Pauli effect.

Development

Bridge once again returns as the main animation studio, after taking over for Studio Gallop beginning with Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS. Masahiro Hikokubo is again composing the series' Duels. The characters are designed by Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita.

It was decided to focus the series on aliens, as director Nobuhiro Kondo and the staff wanted to ensure their second show was accessible to people who hadn't heard of Yu-Gi-Oh! or Rush Dueling, but didn't want to simply repeat the plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, so they decided to make the protagonist an alien as they felt someone not from Earth would be the best choice for someone who didn't know about Rush Dueling. While there were concerns about aliens getting mixed up with Monster Cards, Kondo felt characters like Pidgetrap Quill proved audiences could differentiate between the two; Yudias was initially planned to be more "alien", but it was decided to make him more human to make Duels more easily understood. Consequently, GO RUSH!! is intended as an easy entrance show for people who want to get into Rush Duels, so the early Featured Duels clearly explain "Summons" and "activating a Spell Card" for the purposes of fans who never could quite grasp what was going on in previous shows. Despite this initial basic approach, Kondo stated his intentions to ensure that the Duels will be bizarre and showcase a variety of cards, given the alien nature of many Duelists in the show.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions surrounding it made casting for GO RUSH!! difficult, as the staff were unable to hold mass auditions. Arthur Lounsberry (Yudias Velgear), Toshiki Kumagai (Yuhi Ohdo), and Koko Fukushima (Yuamu Ohdo) portray their characters as a team; Kondo liked the idea of younger actors Kumagi and Fukushima growing into their roles and hoped the series would serve as an entry point for

Trivia

• This is the first anime series to not feature an opening theme song in the first episode.
• This is the first anime series since ARC-V to have more episodes than its predecessor.
• Like SEVENS, this series has a more comedic and lighthearted tone compared to the previous series.

External links

• tv-tokyo.co.jp Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! official website (Japanese)