Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens Episode 2 Review

In this episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens episode 2, it starts right after Yuga beats the hologram man & successfully installed rush duels into their duel disk. From a toy perspective, it looks like a boomerang with card slot holders to extend more reach.



As the doors open & a bright light emerges, hologram tells the new duel king to rise but know & behold the whole thing is a hologram, but as Yuga explains, he doesn't want to be duel king. He just wants to make everyone happy through his style of dueling. Without moments noticed Rook (blue hair) takes the mind to move forward without realizing it's a hologram.



The image of the king of duels is to influence others with your style of dueling & to make a name with that style. There are various ways to interpret what's going on. King of duels could be like an influencer of any sort either from Instagram or YouTube and even motivational speaker. You are spreading the "good word" & how your energy can reach everyone.



Rook seems to shine more from the beginning because his goal to be the top duelist isn't need for second-guessing. He's very confident and sure of himself that he will take the path that laid out in front of him just to accomplish it.



Rook has more reason to be the next king of duels due to his constant practice. From what we learned in the last episode where he dueled hologram man, Rook lost enough times to where he got six penalties.



Because of this, Rook has the intention to keep the creation of rush duels a secret. The fact that everyone's duel disk already registered rush dueling mechanics. If Goha Corp found out about how rush duels emerged & his involvement with it, this could prevent him from reaching his goal of duel king.



With Rook being so confident in his aspirations to be the best top duelist, the dedication that Yuga possesses can interfere with that. Similar to Yuya in "Arc V," Yuga wants to make everyone smile through dueling. In a world or society governed by malice & control, dueling is a way of a social construct.



With these two at different crossroads unable to arrive at a consensus, Romin interjects the too & initiates a duel to solve their issue. Romin isn't given much screen time on this episode since this episode gives more cadence to Rook & Yuga.



So right before the duel takes place, Rook is engulfed in a dark blue aura, which allows him to shut off technology temporarily.



It's funny how the explanation was that a demon-possessed him because when you have some sort of gift, a kid will most likely be as dramatic & "cool" about it when describing it & this just makes it so enjoyable to watch. Even when the duel started, he gives a back story that nobody asked for only for some self-recognition.


One thing to point out is how the screen zoomed in at Rook, taking off his watch to put on the duel disk. His connection with the watch is meaningful because it can connect with the "ability" to manipulate tech on the way he did.



After knowing what we know about Rook so far, we start the duel. I'm enjoying the fact that the duel lasts within the episode & doesn't extend to another. The quick duel leaves screen time for plot & character development, which is always appreciated.



What's interesting to note is that since this series has adjusted to focus on a younger audience, there will be moments where Gakuto (& sometimes Romin) will explain the rules as they did here.

The Rules so far in Rush Duels:
1) Start with 4 cards in hand
 2) Your starting turn can draw one card to make 5
 3) Allowed to normal summon multiple times
 4) When the second player starts their draw phase, they draw until they have five cards in hand
5) The field is in sets of 3 (3 monster zones - 3 spell/trap zones)



A common theme with Yu-Gi-Oh! is when the other characters explain what's going on in the duel, most likely will that play not follow through and simply fail because we already know the outcome or even seen the result previously.

Yuga summons his ace monster, Seven Roads Magician & like in the first episode, he relied on the tragedy to have multiple attribute monsters to overpower Rook & win, but this does happen because he didn't get enough monsters in the graveyard.



That aside, we are introduced to Rook's ace monster, Rush Dragon Dagears. Since this episode focused on Rook, it makes sense that we would see our second lead with their ace. Since Yuga was unable to pull off his win with Sevens Road Magician (on his second turn by the way), Rook begins to make his play & summons his dragon.


So far, his deck consists of dragons that attack multiple times. Even though he hasn't used much of his cards due to the speed of rush duels, his ace monster makes a solid statement of what's to come.



After a second turn from Rook, he pulls off a win & our main character Yuga loses. Compared to the previous main character Yuusaku aka Playmaker from vrains who never lost a duel, Yuga loses in the second episode. Yoga losing will provide stride to the future of the show because the stakes aren't as dangerous like a shadow game or an end of the world scenario. These are kids who so happen to reinvent a way to enjoy dueling without any stakes.



Since Yuga lost the plan to not go public with rush duels, Rook wanted to bide time to work up the goha corp ladder to "make it to the top" like Rook to become duel king was underway. That is until a robot that regularly followed Yuga to police the rules of goha city goes out of hiding & completes the live stream tutorial of Rush Duel to everyone.

We already know that yuga likes to tinker with tech & from the bike to the duel disk, it's perfectly reasonable that he hacked into the robot so it can broadcast the duel for him. This gives flashback to Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal where the Yuma has a Lillybot that's programmed to clean. Also, in Vrains where roboppi was programmed to cater to Yuusaku & make him happy.

After the duel we are panned to goha corp where we see what looks like a call center that's been overhauled with phone calls about rush duels. With possible other rules not yet explained as well as the layout, it does raid concerns for people about the new change considering goha corp had a set of rules that was probably governed for a long time.



Soon after we see Goha corp president on his way to his big office, the music in this scene is very reminiscent of Star Wars Darth Vader. He walks as if he is going to approach the situation head-on kind of like Seto Kaiba did in season 5 of Duel Monsters.



Mr. Goha - President of Goha Corp, receives a call & as he approached to win, he gives off a maniacal laugh as if unfazed but the cluster of info. The laughter that Mr. Goha emotes is reminiscent of an egotist that loves the thrill of a challenge. Mr. Goha doesn't seem to have any enemies, as we know.

Overall the episode is was quick & straight to the point. It was clear who the focus of the episode was & how the story progressed with the focus character. It also gave screen time to our other characters like Gakuto & Romin, while though they didn't have much involvement, they were able to provide context & composition to everyone else & the audience.
The duel itself took only 3-4 turns (2 turns both equally), which gave insight to Rook & didn't necessarily rely on our main character Yuga. The episode has shown some of Goha Corp & the effect rush duels have on it (for now) & the front-facing impact our "president" is taking. I am interested to see what happens next episode.