Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

'Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal' (遊☆戯☆王ゼアル Yūgiō Zearu) is an anime television series based on the manga series written by Shin Yoshida. The series originally aired in Japan between April 11, 2011 and September 24, 2012, consisting of 73 episodes.

Dubbing History
4Kids Entertainment produced an English dub which debuted in October of 2011. After the company's assets were sold in a bankrupcy sale in June 2012, production and distribution shifted to Konami's newly formed 4K Media. 4Kids' bankruptcy was due to a lawsuit filed by Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo in March 2011, which alleged that 4Kids hid revenue genertated by the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and sought to revoke their license to the property. In the midst of the legal battle and bankruptcy proceedings, Nihon Ad Systems' parent company, ADK, solicited international sales for ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal''. This was found to be in violation of the bankruptcy court, which required the companies to act as though the license dispute wasn't taking place. The courts later determined that 4Kids was still entitled to the Yu-Gi-Oh! property. The lawsuit was settled in March 2012, with ADK/Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo paying 4Kids $8 million. Their English dub would continue with the same production crew and completed its run in February 2015.

Unbeknownst to 4Kids and while the court case was ongoing, Nihon and TV Tokyo had proceeded to produce their own English dub of the series over a 6-8 month period starting in June 2011. Contracted out of the Los Angeles-based Bang Zoom! Entertainment, 26 episodes of this version were fully localized, including the addition of a new musical score, comedic sound effects, and retouched animation. The latter was done as the English production crew was given unprecedented access to the animation files. Two more episodes were in the early stages of production but were abandoned after it became clear the project wouldn't be allowed to see the light of day.

The only footage of this alternate English adaptation to surface has been clips shared through an Armageddon Expo panel hosted by voice director Kristi Reed in October 2012. In late September 2016, a user on the Neo Ark Cradle forums discovered a demo version and the finalized opening theme song for the show uploaded onto some of the music crew's Vimeo accounts. Johnny Yong Bosch, who had been cast as the lead Yuma, performed the track.

Additional Voices

 * Jason C. Miller - Clockwork Shinigami, Iron Ai Ai