'Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!' English Dub Has Premiered On Disney XD
It’s finally time to duel WITH AN ALIEN. A modern day warrior a mean mean mean stride
For a show called Go Rush!!, three years sure is a long time to take to reach English audiences. The latest Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series, the eighth in the franchise Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!! finally premiered its English dub on Disney XD on Saturday, December 11, with a 7 AM timeslot, the same that the preceding series, Sevens had.
As Konami put it in their announcement on the franchise’s Facebook page just three days before premiere, “Prepare for the next evolution of dueling as Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!! goes galactic!” Premiering in Japan in April 2022, its arrival now demonstrates just how far the English releases have fallen behind. On Disney XD, it is paired with the latest Beyblade series, Beyblade X, making for an early Saturday morning anime block. The English title for the premiere episode is “Meet the Ultraterrestrial Tracker Squad” and the description on DisneyNOW (which still exists solely as a website following the app closure) reads “Twins Yuhi and Yuamu Ohdo believe there's life beyond the stars - and their wildest dreams!” It’s the whole reason they formed the Ultraterrestrial Tracker Squad. And yeah, there was not much advance notice before premiere.
However, their attempts at collecting proof have not gone well. Continuing to describe the series, the logline goes “But their hard work and dedication are about to pay off when an extraterrestrial finally arrives to Earth! As his homeworld rages in a never-ending battle, Yudias travels across the galaxy after learning that there is only one thing that can end the conflict - Rush Duels! But how is Earth's most popular card game going to stop an interstellar war? Yudias doesn't know - but he'll stop at nothing to find out! Amazing monsters! Powerful spells! Adventures that are literally out of this world! Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!! is ready to soar like never before! Feel the rush with Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!!”
The first episode featured the voice talents of Bryson Baugus, James Brown Jr., Paul Castro Jr., Kevin K. Gomez, Michelle Jin and John Patneaude. According to the anime voiceover wiki it’s Patneaude as Yudias, Jin as Yuamu and Castro as Yuhi. Darren Dunstan, best known as the voice of Maximillion Pegasus but has been the voice director since 5D’s, has praised this series for its writing and humor, calling it “lighter” than previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series and complimenting its “wry sensibility.” As he explained on an episode of the 4Kids Flashback podcast, “Sevens is where things really lightened up a bit. VRAINS was so dark that it was like, let’s do something happy. I don’t know that I’ve been that happy during the run of a show just ’cause there’s a lot more humor. And then Go Rush!! is— Same thing.” He recalled the astonishment by a franchise veteran who began at Duel Monsters “They were like, ‘This show is so funny now,'” Dunstan “loves” the overhaul of procedure and praised the versatility of this series’s leads, as someone who doesn’t shy away from using lead actors as incidentals it’s very useful to hide that they’re the same. “All three of the leads are all fabulous at incidentals,” he raved, “so I’m like, ‘Yeah!'”
Nobuhiro Kondō continues directing duties at studio Bridge. Naoto Hashimoto is the assistant director. Toshimitsu Takeuchi once again oversees the scripts, and Masahiro Hikokubo is again in charge of the duel layout. Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita continue as the character designers, and Hiroshi Yamamoto as the sound director.
It’s assumed that Go Rush!! will arrive on Hulu in a manner mimicking its predecessor, ie batches. I don’t know how big the batches were, Hulu didn’t integrate into Disney+ in time to know, but the two complete seasons do hit the 51 mark. As for whether moving onto the next series means Sevens can be added to the Twitch lineup, there are still no indications as to when it will be. The first episode is available to watch below on Disney XD’s YouTube channel.
Sources: Anime News Network, Yu-Gi-Oh! on Facebook, 4Kids Flashback (1, 2)