"Any card—so long as it exists—has a power that is needed."

(Previously: Episodes 82-83 Subbed [Finalized])

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-84: The Curtain Rises on GeneX! Aim for Number One!

Principal Samejima declares the start of a Dueling World Cup*, a large dueling tournament in which Academia Island serves as the stage for the students and Pro Duelists participating.  Saiou duels a celebrity from a powerful country in Europe, Prince Ojin, who boasts of victory through a One-Turn Kill, and Saiou himself predicts that the duel will end before his turn arrives.  The ATK of the Prince’s Satellite Cannon becomes 4000, and it begins an attack aimed at Saiou…

*“Dueling World Cup” is how the GeneX Tournament seems to have been described in the pre-airing episode summary for this episode.

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Well, then…

After a few unintended hiccups and the resulting recovery–as previously mentioned–episode 84 has finally been finalized! I guess if there’s ever a better time for one to experience hard drive issues, it’d be right as we kick off an obligatory tournament arc, haha.  Principal Samejima, after his duel with Ryou last time, returns to the Duel Academia to announce the start of the GeneX Tournament–one which he’s spent months traveling abroad to organize and bring in some heavy-hitting talent for.  As things kick off, Saiou engages one of those heavy hitters, a prince from a small European country, for a duel to win control of the SOLA laser satellite they’ve launched–one with the power to brainwash wipe out all life on Earth.  It’s a good transition episode, setting up GeneX’s rules and also a key factor in Season 2’s endgame through the introduction of Ojin and SOLA, while giving Shou, Kenzan, and newly-White Misawa some dueling time.  We’ll see that, at some points, it kinda feels like GeneX is on the backburner, but it’s a good backdrop for a few things that’ll happen in this part of the season.

Part of the delay with this one, the aforementioned hiccups aside (which mostly covered October), was handling a few animation and card fixes for this episode; one in particular was a pretty complex one to work on but still came out well.  Details below the cut, as usual, for the curious!

Enjoy, and hope those celebrating enjoyed their time with friends/family this Thanksgiving! Next up, I think I’ll be going back to double releases to make up for some lost time, so 85 and 86’ll be on the way after a short little break the next couple days, though I did begin some work on them already over the last few weeks. (Doing just 84 and then more doubles works nicely, since there are a few two-parters coming up that I’ll be able to get out this way.) Stay tuned!

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