Negative Level
Negative Levels are a concept appearing only in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime, and are used on the anime and video game exclusive Dark Synchro Monsters. In real life any such Levels are instead positive.
The only card that can cause a monster to have a negative Level (in the anime) is "Dark Wave".
They are represented by , which aligns to the left of the card, whereas positive Level Stars align to the right.
Example:
Ranks are different from normal levels because they only appear on Xyz monsters.They are reprsented by the Black and gold star.
.To summon a rank 1 Xyz monster, you must first have two level one monsters on the field. So, in essence, a rank could be the double of a level.
Example: