All spoilers for Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
A new age of Rush Duels begins.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!! is the eighth main anime series in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise that premiered in April 3, 2022. It's the second series to be animated by Bridge, and also the second series to focus on Rush Duels.
Yuuhi Ohdo and Yuamu Ohdo are elementary schooler twins living in Mutsuba Town who are in charge of the alien extermination company UTS (ATC) (Uchuujin Trouble Soudansha / Alien Trouble Consultancy). They spend their days working really hard searching for aliens using a mysterious device created by Yuuhi... 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.
Now it's time to enter the new stage of Rush Duel introduced by this alien soldier from the far ends of the galaxy!
The series appears to serve as a Distant Sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, as many characters share surnames and/or voice actors with SEVENS characters, but the staff have not confirmed whether the two series are set in the same continuity. And it turns out to actually be a midquel, explaining what happened to Yuga between the last two episode of Sevens, set not in the future but actually in a distant past.
This series contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ace Custom:
- Yuhi starts using Valvagear as a Duel Disk after his old one gets damaged.
- Zuwijo uses a brown Duel Disk with a golden body.
- Rovian uses an acoustic guitar-styled Duel Disk similar to Romin and Princess G.
- Asaka uses a construction drill with a design similar Wyrm Excavator during her duel with Yuhi.
- The Ryugu brothers both use a black Duel Disk.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Yudias and his friends end up feeling sorry for Kuaidul when it turned out the galaxy core within him was breaking down so he needed to find out what Rush Duels meant to him before his time is up. When Kuaidul tried to take over Yudias' body, the latter just lets him in order to save him. Then Kuaidul changed his mind and leaves to disappear and Yudias feels bad about being unable to save him.
- All for Nothing: In the aptly titled "A Universe With No Victor", which was even title dropped by Yudias. Yuga comes in conflict with the main cast over the Monster Reborn Spell with him wanting to seal it away to prevent its powers from being misused despite it supposedly being the card needed to bring back all the Velgearians with Yuamu helping him to ease his loneliness. However, in the last turn of the duel, Yudias reveals to Yuamu that the spell cannot bring the Velgearians back to life due to the information of the card overwhelming any person it revives. So regardless of the duel's results, Monster Reborn would end up sealed away with Yuga and Yuamu only causing the discovery to be delayed.
- All Myths Are True: Many aliens are based on a youkai or cryptid with Chupataro's family explicitly stated to being the ones who started the chupacabra myth.
- All Part of the Show: After Manya's dog Bochi turns into a bipedal muscular alien (don't ask, just roll with it), she explains that it's the power of TV at work and everyone should roll with it.
- Ambiguously Related: Many named characters in this series share the same surnames as that of characters in SEVENS, but there is nothing to indicate how they're related to each other or if SEVENS and GO RUSH!! exist in the same continuity. With the revelation that GO RUSH!! takes place in the past, it seems likely that many of these characters are the ancestors of the cast of SEVENS. Although there still is the question if the alien characters that resemble characters in SEVENS are related to them in any way.
- Antiquated Linguistics: Unlike the main protagonists from previous series who use modern, masculine first-person Japanese pronouns when referring to themselves ("ore" and "boku"), Yudias refers to himself with the archaic, masculine "soregashi" (某), highlighting his origins as an extraterrestrial being.
- Arc Number: Following up on SEVENS's 7 motif, GO RUSH!! has the numeral motif of 8, with Yudias' ship bearing 8.88 million members of his race and Manabu has 80 henchman helping him at his attempt to arrest Yudias.
- Back to Base Form:
- In Zwijo's third and last duel before his death, he and Yudias both bust out the Fusion Monsters they used in the climax of season 1. However, the showdown ends up between Apocalypse and Oblivion in their base form with the former winning the intense duel.
- The final duel of season 2 is between Yuhi and Yuga before Yudias and Yuamu take over respectively. After using several new cards and Yudias' Maximum Monster against the onslaught of Fusion Monsters from Yuga's deck, Yudias ends the duel with Jointech Rex, Yuhi's original ace, enhanced with two Equip Spells to destroy Sevens Road Ultima Witch, a Fusion Monster that uses another Fusion Monster as Fusion Material.
- Bait-and-Switch: In Episode 8, Manya Atachi acts like she's completely forgotten her past and memories of being friends with Yuamu... until the end of the episode reveals that it's all an act — and act that Yuamu was in on the whole time — and she is happy to see her old friend after all this time.
- Bigger on the Inside: Yudias's spaceship, Valvelgear, is somehow able to fit 8.88 million Velgereans inside.
- Breaking Old Trends:
- Yudias is the first main character in the franchise to have his full name written in katakana as well as the first to be an extraterrestrial being.
- Previous "Yu" characters (barring Yuya's other three counterparts from the anime, whose "Yu" are written in katakana) have different surnames and are not related with each other (though the first three "Yu" characters did meet each other and teamed up in the Bonds Beyond Time film). Yuuhi and Yuamu on the other hand, are not only a Sibling Team, but also have Yuga's surname. Even more so with Yuamu, who is the first under 20's female main character to have the kanji "Yu" (遊) in her name (though she's technically the second main female "Yu" character after Ageha).
- This is the first series where the first duel shown on-screen in full, does not have the protagonist face a monster with 3000 ATK.
- Yuamu is the first female character to have a deck completely focused on Dragon-type monsters, a deck usually reserved for rival characters.note
- Kuaidul has two summon chants that start with announcing the name of the monster instead of ending with it.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Yudias somehow got a hold of a Duel Disk from SEVENS which is shaped like a 7 with a red blade, whereas the current model in GO RUSH!! goes the other way around to make it shaped like a G with a blue blade. It's later revealed that Yuga gave it to him alongside the card packs he used to make his Deck, explaining why it's different than the other models. The reveal that GO RUSH!! takes place in the past also means this trope is played with: that Duel Disk which is from the future is older than all the others, which are based on it, however they are also realized with lesser technology, meaning they might be less advanced.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: Yudias exclaims "Velgear Riva!" when shedding his Earth disguise to reveal his real form.
- Captain Obvious: Yudias points out that Rush Duels are turn-based while addressing his people, after Yuamu stops him from drawing during his opponent's turn.
- Caring Gardener: Tazaki is this for UTS as it shows vegetables, flowers, trees and even bonsai taken care of with umost of care.
- Casting Gag: Like Gakuto Sogetsu of SEVENS before him, Manabu Sogetsu is also voiced by Natsuki Hanae. In fact, many characters from UTS are elderly versions of characters played by their original seiyuus from SEVENS.
- Continuity Cameo: Silhouettes of Romin, Luke, and Gakuto are shown when Yudias notes Yuga's determination to continue pushing forward and bringing smiles to others, past setbacks be damned.
- Darker and Edgier: Downplayed as this is still a Rush Duel anime, and thus is still rather wacky, but the main underlying plot line involves Yudias and his people getting chased out of their star cluster due to an ongoing war, followed up by Zwijo being a major Knight of Cerebus whose plans to use "Rush Duels" amount to using them as a superweapon, along with subtler topics such as aliens being trapped and imprisoned underground by the MIK. They also bring back carding as a means to punish the loser. Most harrowing of these is that the Kartumata are near the end of their lifespan, expending more of their limited energy by dueling. This has caused the Velgearians to disappear.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Played straight with Manabu, Chupa, Skyfish and Rovian. Downplayed with Zwijo who hasn't joined the heroes yet but helped Yudias recover at one time and ultimately subverted when he ultimately remains as the Big Bad three arcs in. Subverted with Manya who was always Yuamu's friend but acted like she wasn't for show.
- Disappeared Dad: The Ohdo twins are running UTS after their father vanished.
- Distant Sequel: The series appears to be one for SEVENS but the series actually turns out to be a Stealth Prequel disguised as a Distant Sequel with Yuga having been sent to the past. Funnily enough this still makes the series a continuation of SEVENS considering it explains what happened to Yuga between his duel against Otes and how he returned to Earth.
- Driven to Madness: A G-rated example happens to the crew of Valgelgear in season 3 where more or less everyone except for Epoch goes insane due to having only eaten curry bread for days.
- Endangered Species:
- This is the case for space dragons and dragon busters. Space dragons are said to be extinct with there only being two known descendants in the series with Phaser and Tremolo. Dragon busters hunt and feed on space dragons which can only be found as fossils now and Shewbahha is the only dragon buster in the series.
- Due to their lifespans running out threatening their extinction the Kartumata have become this as well.
- Exotic Eye Designs: A common aspect that allows the viewer to distinguish a human from a Human Alien, as aliens like Yudias and Mitsuko tend to have patterns in their pupils that the human cast lacks.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Alien enemies include the Latin American Chupacabra, Japanese Kappa, and West Virginian Flatwoods monster.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Yuhi wants to help Yudias explain Rush Duels by carefully opening the card packs. Yudias is ready to punish him for such a crime of destroying his Rush Duels. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Foreshadowing: Similar to SEVENS, there's a fair amount of this in GO RUSH.
- Nyandestar behaves weirdly when the topic of the Great King of Terror comes up which is a sign for his involvement in her past.
- Yudias thinking that he heard of The☆Luge prepares us for him realizing that The☆Luge is the author of Mr. Universe.
- When The☆Luge has an emotional breakdown due to Zwijo roasting his manuscripts, he somehow is not affected and frozen by the manuscript like everyone else with the same immunity happening to the UTS trio. It turns out Zwijo managed to create a cure with his curry bread, which the UTS ate a ton of due to Yuamu wanting to collect all the bakery's collectible plates.
- It was mentioned in SEVENS that before Goha Corporation became the predominant power, Mutsuba Heavy Machinery was the major corporate entity, ignoring the Old Money Kamijou Gear Company-and that they built the town that became Goha. Mutsuba Town in this series is rather small compared to the big Goha City, with a tower similar to Goha's still under construction. This is subtlely hinting that GO RUSH takes place in the past of SEVENS.
- In their duel, Tell Kawai is surprised at the deck Yuhi is using. Episode 42 reveals that he used to have Yuamu's dragon deck, but they traded after that loss because Yuhi didn't feel worthy of it.
- Episode 77 has The Creator mention that he based the Kartumata on the different galaxies in the universe and that he chose for Kuaidul a galaxy close to the Milky Way galaxy. In Episode 90 it's revealed that Yudias has the Milky Way galaxy and that this is central to Kuaidul's plans because he wants to fuse it with his Andromeda galaxy similar to what is expected to happen to these galaxies in the far future.
- In episode 103, Epoch is the only one shown to be still fine despite having seemingly only eaten curry bread for days if not weeks unlike Yudias and Yuhi, who undergo Sanity Slippage. Two episodes later, it is revealed that she hid a large amount of snacks in her box.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: In #4, Yuhi has to make the decision between going after the alien who stole his Earthdamar or getting the Valvelgear containing 8.88 million of Yudias' Velgerean followers back after accidentally dropping it in a garbage truck. He chooses the latter out of friendship.
- Grade-School C.E.O.: Yuamu is the CEO of UTS, inherited from her and Yuuhi's father. Yuna Goha is also supposed to the CEO of Goha Company, but has instead chosen to be Rovian Kirishima's top supporter. Asaka Mutsuba is the president of Mutsuba Heavy Machinery.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kaizo stabilizes Yudias' Maximum cards loaned from "That guy" at the cost of shutting down due to using his last remaining energy.
- Humans Are Special: Early on in the series, we're introduced to a mysterious substance called "Earthdamar" that was harvested from Yuhi's body. It has very mysterious powers, such as the ability to make Duel Monsters become real. It is eventually revealed that Earthdamar is something that all humans possess, as it is the physical manifestation of our ability to enjoy things.
- If Only You Knew: With the announcement of a prize for the Galaxy Cup Nomura who is part of the assembled crowd for the event makes it clear that he thinks that something like the complete set of Mr. Universe wouldn't be a good prize. Phaser, Asaka and Yuna all immediately reply that they would never do that making Nomura excited and think that the price will be something that anyone would be happy to receive with it being shown that this is precisely what each of them prepared. After that they have to figure out another prize during the ongoing Galaxy Cup.
- Improbable Age: Yuamu, Yuna and Asaka are all school kids who are presidents of their companies, Mutsuba in particular being absurdly huge apparently having over 8.88 million employees (based on what Asaka said). There's also London who's shown to be the same age as them yet has a job as a manager.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: The moment Tell says that no attack should be able to pierce the Super Valvel Shield it gets pierced by the spaceship of the Great King of Terror.
- Irony: In SEVENS, Maximum Monsters debuted before Fusion Monsters and were treated as a major powerhouse before Fusion Monsters came along. Go Rush has the opposite happen.
- Kid Hero: The Ohdo twins, Yuuhi and Yuamu, are elementary schoolers. They are middle schoolers after the time skip.
- Literal Metaphor: Episode 99 takes creating a new road far more literal than you'd expect from a Rush Duel series since the time Sevens began airing.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Kuaidul's Space-Time essentially functioned as this for Zaion and Yuna.
- MacGuffin: A mysterious item known as "Earthdamar" is actively pursued by Yuhi, who believes it was stolen from him by an alien. It's unclear what exactly the Earthdamar is, as Yuhi refuses to disclose any details when Yudias asks him about it. #5 shows it's a strange black mist.
- The Magic Poker Equation: Subverted in the first duel of the series, where both duelists have rather poor starting hands with Yuhi only drawing one monster card and Yudias only having level 4 and lower monster cards.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The Velgereans make inserting a plug into a socket seem like a gargantuan task.
- Mythology Gag: GO RUSH!! contains numerous references to its predecessor.
- The series is set in Mutsuba Town, its namesake coming from Asana Mutsuba.
- Yudias uses the same Duel Disk from SEVENS that shapes itself to resemble the number "7" while in Rush Duel mode.
- All of UTS's named elderly employees share the same surname as that of their counterparts from SEVENS.
- Manabu shares Gakuto's surname and looks similar to him (even having the same seiyuu). When trying to give UTS a fake request, he disguises himself with a purple wig and a suit with the same blue hue as Gakuto's clothing.
- During Yuga’s appearance, his face above his mouth is obscured and his name remains unsaid, just like Yugi’s reappearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
- Motive Misidentification: There is one instance of this happening with Kuaidul despite Yuhi, Yuamu and Asaka figuring out that he wants to turn everyone into his cards as part of his Kartios Project. They figure that he is doing this out of sorrow and resentment resulting from the situation of the Kartumata like with Zuwijo when pretty much none of that is the case for him.
- Naïve Newcomer: Yudias is a newcomer to Rush Duels to the point that he thinks Rush Duels are just the booster packs in general.
- Not So Invincible After All: Season 2 builds up Maximum Monsters as a huge threat with even Fusion Monsters being unable to defeat them. By the time of #60 victims that have been defeated by Maximum Monsters include Yuga, Yuna, Yuhi, and the majority of the rebel army with the exception of Yudias and Yuamu, who managed to find Yuga's Maximum Monsters. Then in #61 Zwijo duels against Manabu and instead of defeating his Maximum Monster directly, the Big Bad of season 1 manages to win the duel by exploiting the Maximum Monster's huge ATK and sending it right back to its owner's Life Points.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Manabu as “General Study”. With the exception of Yuamu and Yuhi, no one recognizes him, despite speaking with the same voice and calling his organisation “Neo-MIK”. His identity is even said very casually by Nyandestar, so it isn’t being played as any kind of reveal.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: UTS seems to border on this at the start of the series, as- despite Yuuhi and Yuamu's stated job of tracking down troublesome aliens- they have never actually encountered an alien before Yudias and seem to have very little idea of what to do if they do, instead just taking random jobs around town.
- Power Creep: Although Yuuhi was going easy on Yudias at first - summoning Tamabot with 200 ATK in attack mode - he was prepared with Traps for any level 4 monster at 1500 ATK or a Tribute Summon, but Yudias pulling out the 1600 ATK Transmaru Rainac - an ATK value noted to be above what a level 4 should have - causes Yuuhi to lose the duel.note
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: When Team Mutsuba gather to face the Great King of Terror, members include a laser-eyeing alien soldier, a space cop, a bandit poet, a muscular bipedal dog and a cutesy idol. This is only 30 episodes in, there will likely be even more weirdos joining eventually.
- Red Herring: An increasing amount of evidence throughout the story would have you believe that The Creator is Otes only for it to turn out that it was Otes' Earthdamar with us still not having an idea as to what happened to Otes.
- Revealing Continuity Lapse: Several pop up throughout Episode 78, such as Chupataro crying out his ears, Yuhi's voice being totally different, Rovian playing a drum instead of a guitar and various others. It soon turns out to be an illusion.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story:
- After much hardships, Chupataro manages to complete the Meeeg-Chan anime, but it is only aired in Mutsuba Town due to it taking off into space.
- After eating curry bread for only six weeks to collect stickers for the promotion and dueling against Zwijo, Yuamu is unable to obtain the last plate needed to complete collection due to the manager dropping the box out of exhaustion and the last plate he tried to give in exchange for keeping his job at the bakery a secret also breaking upon him collapsing from hunger.
- Share Phrase: Employees of UTS exclaim the abbreviation of their company as a sign of affirmation.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Chupataro, a consistently recurring comic relief character, made no appearances during the last arc of season 2, which involved dark themes and an entire species of people going extinct.
- Significant Anagram: There is one with Jointech Nestrider Tank and Darkness Jointech Tyrant in rōmaji. This was used by Kuaidul to trick Yuhi into playing a Darkness Monster to advance his Kartios Project.
- Sizeshifter: Valvelgear can do this which allows it and the 8.8 million Velegeareans inside it to more easily follow the characters. Zwijo's spaceship Zaida Velgear can do this too. Yudias actually mistakes The☆Mokeida Mbembe's plastic models as being the result of similar technology.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Yuamu wears glasses with pink shades and is the more intellectual one between her and Yuhi.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Episode 98 ends with the cheerful-sounding opening, Soul Galaxy, playing while everyone is in grief and shock over the death of Zwijo, who used the last of his energy to have one last duel against Yudias.
- Starfish Language: Yudias and his people have their own native language known as Velgearian, which is incomprehensible to Earthlings. Card texts written on Galaxy-type Normal monsters are also complemented with alien speech.
- Stylistic Suck: The Meeeg-chan anime has many scenes where it's clearly slideshow animation with jarringly rough art, Dabingo admitted they had little resources. Although the show still ended up being a big hit.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Chupataro tries to blackmail Yudias by taking the Valvelgear hostage, he actually stole the paper copy Yuhi created when he thought he broke it. Yudias applauds Yuhi for his thoughtfullness, and he decides to just roll with it while claiming that someone like him can see anything coming.
- Sweet Sheep: Chupataro's deck are full of adorable looking sheep.
- Talking Animal: Manabu's feline partner, Nyandestar, is capable of human speech. It turns out to not be her true form though.
- Time Skip: Season 2 has Yudias returning to Earth after two years.
- Temporal Paradox: Episode 39 reveals that GO RUSH is set some time prior to the events of SEVENS, as Yuga mentions that he and Kaizo, some time after their final duel against Otes, wound up at a time and place where Solid Vision and Rush Duels did not exist. Yuga was reluctant to grant Zwijo's request to create Rush Duels in the time period of GO RUSH as it would have unintended consequences with Yuga's time period.
- Vague Age: Unlike the main protagonists from previous series, Yudias's age is not explicitly mentioned, with his description as a tall, young man being the only indicator of his approximate age. It's indicated that he must have been created by The Creator a long time ago. Yuhi and Yuamu's ages are also not explicitly mentioned; they are, however, described as fifth-graders, which makes them either 10 or 11.
- Wham Episode:
- Episode 5 has some pretty big reveals about the Earthdamar. Apparently all planets have one, and it's a powerful object with eldritch properties (it seems to have caused physical changes in the alien who attempted to study it). Its form is also revealed, and it's a red mass of goo that seems to be vaguely shaped like a person. Oh, and it used to be inside of Yuuhi.
- Episode 26 ends with The Reveal of the space treasure. It turns out to be spaceship created by Velgereans in the past, which was buried underneath Mutsuba Town and Yudias' dueling spirit accidentally activated it, thus causing the whole town to go into space and setting a new frontier.
- Episode 39 finally confirms something major about the setting; GO RUSH takes place in a time period from before SEVENS. After his duel with Otes, Yuga and Kaizo were thrown into the past, and were captured by Zwijo, who forced Yuga to make Rush Duel cards... thus introducing Rush Duels, and indeed, Duel Monsters and the associated technologies as a whole, into an era where they should not exist.
- Episode 60 not only confirms that Yuga is “That Guy”, but also sees Yuamu getting turned into a card, and revealing that everyone turned into a card has also undergone a Forced Transformation into a cat.
- Episode 90 ends with the reveal that the Velgearians are nearing the end of their lifespans and that their entire species will soon disappear like Kuaidul.
- Episode 102 reveals that Monster Reborn cannot bring back the deceased Velgearians, Yuga is sent back to his original time through a wormhole, Yuamu suddenly disappears in space, and Kuaidul told Yudias that the Ohdo's will oppose the Velgearians.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside:
- People from Dudi Ducasse are when they enter a long period of worry capable of generating a Dudimo Dudimo Space in which tens of years can pass without a single minute going by in the real world. This gets later exploited by Zwijo to reveal Phaser's space dragon form.
- Kuaidul's Space-Time does this to the minds of the people it traps. All of the events that play out in there happen in an instant of the real world that nobody who didn't retain their memories from that time even noticed.
