4Kids Pitchs Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal on Licensing Expo

4Kids Entertainment plans to promote Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, in a Las Vegas event next week to attract potential merchandise producers. The series will premiere on CW's Toonzai block this Fall along with a 500-episode special event. Further plans to promote the series will be revealed at the Licensing International Expo.

4Kids is involved in a court battle with the Japanese licensors of Yu-Gi-Oh!, ADK's Nihon Ad Systems (NAS) and TV Tokyo. Both Japanese companies intended to cancel their contract with 4Kids Entertainment due to allegedly fraudulent underpayment. 4Kids then filed for bankruptcy but it continues to operate in the meantime.


ADK and TV Tokyo then planned to pitch Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal themselves at the Licensing International Expo, but 4Kids filed a legal motion against this. Last week, Judge Shelley C. Chapman of 4Kids' bankruptcy case ordered a stay, barring ADK and TV Tokyo from selling the license to another company until the case of fraudulent underpayment is resolved. Dang it.

Source: Licensing.biz via Anime News Network

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal First Promo!

Finally, after much anticipation, the first promotional video for the fifth Yu-Gi-Oh! series (counting the Toei YGO! one), Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (read as ze-al) that will be aired on Spring 2011, was posted on it's official site!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal tells the story of Yuma Tsukumo. He is number one bad boy at his school. Something unexpected happens as Ryoga challenges him to a Duel. When the mysterious entity Astral appears before them, a new legend begins.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Coming Soon! [UPDATED 2]

On the February issue of V Jump, reveals the details on the new Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga on Saturday!

Called Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal it will premiere next spring in Golden Time, the popular evening timeslot on TV Tokyo and its other affiliate stations.

The series is set in the near future. Yuuma Tsukumo is number one bad boy at his school. Something unexpected happens as Ryoga challenges him to a Duel. When the mysterious entity Astral appears before them a new legend begins.

In this new series, a new type of summoning is introduced. Called Exceed Summon! This type of summoning is first seen in the manga version of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. This type of summoning allows you to overlay monsters of the same level and put the new monster on top. It doesn't clog up the grave, and could help Konami change the emphasis away from the graveyard if this thing goes big.

In this scan, I can clearly see Yuuma's "scouter," and it seems, he is amazed with this kind of summon!

Yu-Gi-Oh! creator, Kazuki Takahashi and Studio Dice (Weekly Shonen Jump) are credited with the original story and the original character designs of the anime.

A scan of the manga... and I can't figure out what is the gimmick this time around!

Satoshi Kuwahara (Black Jack 21, Tezuka Osamu ga Kieta?! 20 Seiki Saigo no Kaijiken, Astro Boy: Shinsen-gumi) is directing off scripts that are supervised by Shin Yoshida (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time).

Masahiro Hikokubo is credited with "Dual Layout" as he was for the previous television series. Hirotoshi Takaya (The Brave of Gold Goldran, Chouja Reideen, Eyeshield 21, Kekkaishi) is designing the characters for anime. 

Source: Moe Ota-News Shokuhō via ANN, garfield15 of HJU (for the synopsis and manga image), Dark Kabuto (for the Exceed Summon), cohenmarioman (for the mechanics of Exceed Summon)