Man these videos really just prove how completely underrated YuGiOh’s writing is

In season 1, after Shou starts calling Judai "aniki", Judai tells him to stop, insisting they're equals. Shou doesn't. When Kenzan appears later and also calls him "aniki" Judai appears to be resigned. He ignores their weird infighting over his attention, and he always seemed kind of awkward to me about the whole thing. Then there's Kaiser, Manjoume and Edo who, while they are his friends, also have a rivalry with him. They act like they're better than Judai. And then Johan comes and after their duel, they go up on the roof and talk about their mistakes and how they both could've done better, and there's no inferiority or superiority. Johan being Judai's true and honest equal is such a breath of fresh air that it's kind of no wonder they became so close so quickly.

ARE WE SERIOUSLY STILL ON GX???? good

I can't tell if this a character analysis video or shipping propaganda But im here for both

This beautiful Scandinavian is the only man jaden ever loved

"Johans dream is to bridge the gap between the duel monsters spirit world and the human world" "he wants the spirits to be safe and for humans to live in harmony with them" .....so Johan is the avatar confirmed....

Jesse had a texan accent to potray the characters in brokeback mountain yehaw gay cowboyssss

It's fine guys Judai said no homo

Just to mention, the fully realised version of Judai’s character is shown in the Bonds Beyond Time movie- this is the form of Judai that lies at the end of all his character development. Notice that this version of Judai isn’t a natural leader, he’s just a guy who travels the world (and hangs out in Venice? For... some reason?) for fun, having adventures.

The elephant monster with Arnold Schwarzenegger accent is one of the rare dub>sub voices.

The “why are you gay” edit is comedy gold omg

E-Hero’s and Crystal Beasts had a gay love child in Gem Knights

Johan. The therapy Judai desperately needed.

Hella love this dude, being the only true 'equal' to Judai and the only real friend, save from maybe Chazz and his quirkiness

Find a man who will disregard all his friends who he has spent the last 2 years with bonding and going on crazy journeys just to go and risk himself and his friends to save you.

I'm honestly shocked you didn't talk about Season 4. 1) Judai was cursed to see everyone as an enemy, including Johan. Even us as viewers were shown a generic enemy instead of Johan. Then Johan dueled Judai, realized exactly what was happening, and snapped Judai out of it. All this without losing doubt - Johan was in full control of that entire situation. He knew Jaden that well. 2) Then they tag dueled against an evil character who looked into their souls and saw their bond. It described Judai as "Johan's light", so the evil one decided to break that bond. It looked successful when Judai and Johan started attacking each other in the Duel - only for them to start laughing. It was all a ruse to get a combo going. Those two were able to hit each other while darkness incarnate was trying to turn them against one another, and still be allies, without even discussing the plan beforehand. 3) IIRC Johan is the last human to survive the incoming darkness, except Judai himself. None of Judai's friends got this kind of treatment. 4) All the S3 characters were handled so well, it's what the series needed from the start. My only complaint is Judai's original friends got the shaft in S3 - extremely overshadowed by the newcomers, to say nothing of becoming soul fuel to create a meta card. (side note: friends sacrificed for power? Anyone else getting Berserk vibes from that scene?) For what it's worth, S4 fixed the writing for Judai's original friends, who got some depressingly realistic character development arcs. 5) As a last point, S3 GX deconstructed the entire idea of being the invincible hero of the story. You mentioned how Judai fixed every crisis so far, so now he feels only he can fix the new one. I'll add that Judai *did* fix everything right before the Dark World arc, except Johan was missing. Obviously Judai rejected this outcome, and IIRC he did this out of pure care for Johan - he didn't get lured by Viper, Yubel, Darkness, or candy, he went willingly. Suddenly, losing a Duel means literal death, *and* it means Johan dies since no one can save him. Suddenly, being the invincible hero of your show is a liability; you're no longer a nobody that saves the day. Instead, you have monsters acknowledge you as a threat. They target you (and your friends) to prevent you from saving the world. Judai was stressed the fuck out, and this is all a consequence of his bond with Johan. And when Judai did snap, he became the Supreme King and used his apparent invincibility to *conquer the world in a few days*. It took the end of S4 for GX to acknowledge how much Judai changed, for better and worse, and the entire point of the epilogue duel was to give Judai back the ability to have fun Dueling, without any world-ending shebangs. TLDR: while Yubel was the destination, Johan was the guide on the road, and S4 fittingly concluded all that was gained and lost on that road.

The school is also to blame. If they didn’t treat Judai like card playing Jesus, then he probably wouldn’t have issues in season 3.

While I do view Judai and Johan's relationship as romantic, their bond is honestly just really incredible. I honestly forgot how much stress Judai's friend group put on him by having him basically do everything for them, so I can only imagine how confused and stressed out Judai was when Johan tried to handle his own situation. Johan was honestly such a great balance to Judai, but as some people have pointed out, I kinda wish that they delved more into the connection that the two felt when they first met as there's a theory going around that Johan also had a past life who possibly met Haou. Also, can I just thank you for those clips of Jaden saying "Jesse" and his terrible Texan accent? Because they nearly made me choke on my cereal.

This may not be shipping propaganda, but from what you have said they are absolutely boyfriends and I cannot WAIT to experience it subbed

Man, that Judai and Johan, such good friends, eh? Doing things for each other that only friends do! 'You are literally the only thing that makes me feel happy Johan, you're my rock. For you, I literally went crazy just to be with you again and the thought of you being alive was the only thing that kept me from dying.' BEST FRIENDS

To see someone this passionate about Gx like me is a treat. Definetly will watch your other gx videos. Gx is definetly my favorite series.

I love the fact that anime series from mid 2000s has better gay representation than the disney's beauty and the beast remake. God Johan is so likable and this video makes him even more likeable.

Also in Season 4, in the Battle Royale Duel with Judai against Fujiwara, they Trolled Fujiwara making he believe he found the Darkness in Johan’s heart and making fight Johan Against Judai. But when Johan activates a Trap that makes his Monster gain ATK equal to the Damage he took from a Card effect (wich was by the Card “Damage Interest, wich doubles the Damage you took from a battle), they start to laugh and Johan reverses his attack back to Fujiwara. For me, this is one of the best moments in Season 4 of Gx

This is why GX is my favorite Yugioh series. The character writting is *chefs kiss* beautiful

Normally with a lot of shipping stuff I think it’s reaching but this is entirely different Yu-gi-oh had a pan sexual protagonist who was in a love triangle with a non-binary demon and European who understood him on a deeper level and it’s kinda amazing.

When I watched it, I thought the most important thing was Judai being able to have an equal relationship with anyone. Johan could see spirits like him and also didn't rely on him to save his ass constantly. It just seemed like his first actual friendship. And wether or not it was romantic seems kind of secondary to me, I just want Judai to be happy :(

One thing I appreciate with Johan is that his deck does not use fusions, which makes him stand out a bit more from the other characters (and yes, I know Alexis har ritual monsters, which is really nice)

12:27 In the Japanese language, the word 'love' used here (好き) has varying levels of love, and has broad applications to express likeness/love . In Japan, it's not uncommon to say it to express fondness among friends. But Judai + Johan is a hill I'm willing to die on. Their not-so-subtle boss monster fusion is RAINBOW neos.

fun fact, in Norway we have a saying for when something is ludacris "det er helt texas" meaning thats just texas. surely this is just a coincidence

Jesse was the character we needed. Also, Season 3 was a *RIDE*

Its so nice to hear someone else talk about how Johan is the first person Judai can really lean on, I've been rambling to my friends (who really don't care but like it when I talk about things I like) on this topic for ages. Also, as a ship thing, my favourite small thing is in season 4 when Fujiwara says 'when these two are together, they can create miracles.' Like, Judai has tons of magical powers at that point, but Johan is the thing that makes them both capable of miracles. Nothing stronger than two boyfriends fighting to protect each other!

Don't worry, there's no bigger shipping propaganda for these two than the anime itself

Hears "equal" and "support": *Oh yes, that's the good stuff*

Another wonderful moment when it comes to Judai and Johan is in season 4. After Judai escapes the exploding Kaiba Corp and is being manipulated by the dark energy. Johan to the rescue. Not only trying to make sure he’s ok after Judai literally rolls off a motorcycle that then explodes but then when Judai acting erratic demands a duel. Johan uses his cards to get through to Judai through the duel releasing what hold the dark energy had on him. Even when he isn’t perpetually around like in season 3. Our boy Johan is still there for Judai when he absolutely needs him and I just think that’s *chef’s kiss* perfection.

Johan: *shows up* Everyone at Duel Academy: Oh my god, Judai is in love with him! Yubel: Absolutely not!

I already had some of the same thoughts about Johan, but you've given me an even bigger appreciation for his character. I really wish him and some other characters had more to do in season 4.

Judai: sees Koichi Judai: oh boy free reliable guy

Currently watching GX sub and I can confidently say my childhood was robbed by the dub experience (except for shmaden)

I think Johan (Jesse) is either from Denmark or Norway since in Sweden it would have been "Andersson" instead of "Andersen" however if we look at the story between Johan and Judai it's kinda similar to the story between Kai and Gerda from The Snow Queen (With Yubel as the Snow Queen), which is a book written by a Danish author Hans Christan "Andersen"

Maybe the reason his other friends images broke was because he saw them die in real time? While Johan is a speculation, so he has to make sure. He probably skipped some grieving steps with the others and went straight to acceptance, but with Johan he can cling to the hope of his most reliable guy to stay alive.

IT HAS ARRIVED! PRAISE CRYSTAL BOY!

I see GX in a whole nother light now. This video is a masterpiece. Thank you for taking the time and actually making me appreciate it more than I already did (it was already my favorite). I can never get enough of your GX videos!

I owe you my entire life for this video because no one loves Jesse Anderson enough. And it makes sad. Also Spiritshipping is CANON ANYONE CAN FIGHT ME

I loved Johan so much that i had the Rainbow Dragon/Crystal Beast deck back when synchros and XYZ began start popping. I always lost because well (the decks from GX where a lil' slower than the ones that came after...). Anyways, i loved that deck so much that i modified it, leaving it somewhat "competitiveish" and winning a couple of duels against somewhat "renown" guys from the Yu-Gi-Oh! community in my city. I was so stubborn in changing or "updating" my deck, that people started to call me "The Crystal-boy", and it was kinda funny but i really liked being called that. Pd: Crystal Abundance was an amazingly OP card.

Jesse is getting new cards IN PRIDE MONTH (And the entire font is in rainbow) Clearly not a coincidence

Jesse is by far my favourite character in any yugioh series. Followed by Zane and the fact that people shit on GX baffles me. I really enjoy the series and you have made me start watching the sub to see what ive been missing :P

Bless you Crystal Boi, all you wanted to do was summon crystal monsters and chill with your boyfriend.

Important development (Gets buffed while posessed)

The power of GAYNESS UNLOCKED and Judai X Johan is canon

You're making me treasure and appreciate this show and it's wonderful characters even more. Thank you

Idk if anyone has mentioned how entertaining your editing is yet 😭

I love the dynamic between these two. I wish we got to see more of Johan. ❤

OMG!! Thankyou so much for making this! As I've commented in your past videos, Johan/Jesse is my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh character out of everyone, and I feel like he doesn't get half the love he deserves so this video means a lot! 💖

I love your videos, they're really well crafted and well edited. Keep up the good work!

I've never seen such in-depth analysis videos of characters from Yu-Gi-Oh GX. As someone whos favorite series was GX and favorite characters being Judai, Johan and Yubel, consider me very happy to have stumbled upon this video tonight. Also your use of memes are just perfect.

19:09 "country" damn right, greatest country in the USofA

The fact that Judai was about to fall to the Darkness, when almost everyone in the world already had and he was the last hope, Johan appears and saves him. Johan isn't a main protagonist and he was one of the 3 people on the wolrd that didn't lose to the Darkness. They quite literally had to off screen him cause they didn't want him to be there for Judai during the last duel lol

Little fun fact Gem-Knights could be a reference or homage to Johan and Judais Frienship the Gem-Knight Fusion looks very similar to a Crystal beast card i forgot the name of (maybe Crystal Abundance but i honestly don't remember im sorry) and the wonder fusion that supports HERO fusions

I NEEDED A VIDEO ESSAY ON JOHAN SO BAD IVE LITERALLY BEEN SEARCHING FOR ONE EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Johan and judai so much! Be it platonic or romantically together, I don't give a shit. Johan is really a wonderful character and their friendship is really awesome to watch. Judai even ended up doing the thing Johan said he dreams and will make it his goal in life to do so. "Showing and helping to bridge the relationship between humans and duel spirits" Btw the fact that johan's va is an actual female when they can obviously find a male selyuu easily just feeds to my ship for them 😂 I know I'm sprouting nonsense for that but let me live my ship dream ok? Oh and what's with that sentence that they said at the first episode they met? "I feel like I knew you from long ago" " me too" And this was never mentioned again. For what is the point for them to put this line in? 😏 This just makes me believe judai and Johan were at least really best friends in their past life. Either he really was in love with him but felt responsible towards yubel thus gave yubel his love instead since yubel gave and modified their own life for judai, or they in the least are close best friend as I said. I would think I'm grabbing straws but hey yubel is the one confirming with us that indeed past lives is a thing in gx lol I hope youre happy now melon for reviving my love for this ship once again

What an amazing analysis, I had forgotten why I loved Jesse/Johan so much since the first time I met him 💙 The best and most important part here for me is how Johan gave Judai stability, not only because he sees the world in the same way as him, but also because Johan proved be able to defend himself. That's one of the narrative issues of the series but here it becomes a background to develop Johan and Judai, and it is the fact that Judai's friends are not able to solve their own issues. Is it Jaden who has to win the duels when they count. So now that the person who understands him shows that doesn't need protection for sure made feel Judai less stressed and more calm. And I learned with this video that Johan should come from a different school than the North Academy. And that makes all the sense, that Manjoume went to the school in the northern region but that Johan comes from a northern county, considering how the other guys represent countries and not regions. And also I think we can connect the idea of crystals with ice to give more sense to his background. Oh gosh, I really loved this video and recalled my love for Johan 💙

As someone who has primarily seen the dub for Gx( watched season 4 subbed cause it was the only way) you've really opened my eyes on a lot of these characters and their relationships which is something the dub really undersold and totally got wrong as I've now come to realize. Thank you for these informative and extremely funny videos ( your editing and comedic timing is top notch)!

I revisited this video since one year ago, and it still amazed me in a new way. Some months ago I built a Crystal Beasts deck and, while I have always liked Johan, there was something in my head that I couldn't understand about why I decided to go with Crystal Beasts over other anime decks. After the video I figured out that thinking in Johan makes me feel some inner relief. I went through a lot of stress and anxiety in the pandemic, and now remembering Johan and how he represents relief and peace to Judai (and the watcher), I think building his deck made me feel a kind of subconscious relief. I even got sleeves to match his hair and his vest. I really love this boy 💙💚

I love you for this. Thanks for this interesting deep dive. Season 3 of GX is one of my most valuable childhood memories and seeing so much depth in it (as well as the cuteness) is amazing! Go Johan!

Oh mel ive always loved your editing style its amazing! Also KENN tho 👀 cant get over the fact that judai was his first time ever voice acting

9:46 Oh, I didn't know that there were two versions of the third opening! :O It's amazing that they changed the scene, it's like a little spoiler, but people don't notice at the beginning, because it's a well hidden scene. A secret spoiler scene ... :O

Really enjoying your videos! I first came across the “GX is better than you think,” and I can’t wait for whatever other content you’ll make

I really didn't get Johan and Judai's relationship in the dub and this was very eye opening thanks! (Also now I love them)

Being someone who grew up on the Dub and even though Syrus was like "THEY'RE TWINS", I knew something gay was happening there. Even though I grew up in a tiny minded village, I knew if one of them was a girl, they would've kissed by now. So even though I haven't given the original sub a watch yet (I've seen clips and I watched Season 4, but that was it), it's really great that theory/analysis videos like this exist so I can get a broader idea about what actually happened in the original subtitles while the Dub were all like "Yubel wants revenge on Jaden for shooting **her** into space and *she's* doing everything to get revenge on Jaden for that". Thank you for all your hard work!

“One of my favourite characters in the entirety of the Yu-Gi-Oh series” Time to add it in the GX character pile

All I’m saying is she would really loves Digimon Tammers

nah we don't need to have quick videos. these whole character dedicated vids are awesome

I feel like they wrote themselves into a hole in season 4 with Johan though. Because they needed to cut him out so Alexis could be the one to bring Judai back around to enjoying duels

Dunno how you feel but johan is one the most beautifuly drawn characters in the whole yugioh anime - and he s quite hot too I can’t blame judai😂

Making Johan more manly makes the relashionship between him and Judai even more gay, which is fine by me.

wasn't expecting another vid after Chazz so soon! this is a new way to consider Johan. fan of the essay format

Cobra: right now you have nothing to support you Johan: say that to my face! Ya limp noodle! I wheezed

nice analysis. I couldn't have put it in better words when you said Johan is the only one that understood Judai

absolutely love this, you've encouraged me to watch it subbed

This is honestly one of the best videos on this platform. It gives me a lot of joy to come back once in a while and just dwell on how awesome those characters are.

i appreciate johan so much more , i watched the dub and they did do him dirty.

this video makes me miss this boy more, thank you! :) I've watched this countless times I love himmm (more GX videos yes---)

god damn i love your videos they really make my week !!

Neat analysis! Thanks for uploading!

You actually made 20 min video about CRYSTAL BOY.... Wow.

Wow… growing up on the English Dub, I never realized how gay Judai and Jesse are. It’s adorable, and I love it. So that’s why Jaden never got with Alexis in the show, he loved Jesse the most. I thought she just suffered from the “Yugioh male protag won’t end up with her” syndrome, like Tea and Akiza. Lol

Bless you for introducing the sub version to me, I always thought sub/dub would basically be the same thing but now I see I'm missing out on a lot of the deep parts of the whole GX story. I love your content and how you still manage to make it funny and interesting through the entirety of the video despite it being a kinda serious topic. Keep making great stuff

this is straight up(haha) one of my favourite videos ever!!! i love this analysis so much and it elevated my opinion of johan even more(and i already loved him plenty before!!!) and it explains so well why im so drawn to the bond between him and judai. i love this video thank you so much im glad i found your channel

That...was a pretty damn great analysis ! I had no idea GX had this kind of depth into it, and it really makes me want to finish it ! A sub and the bell for you ^^ I'll look forward to your next videos.

Their relationship is basically Shinji and Kaworu Nagisa. Both are people they admire and showed them what it means to be treated as equals.

Dude you're so cool, this was so well done, I wanna rewatch GX now, gosh!!

Johan is my favorite character in all of Yu-Gi-Oh, of ever series. Thank you so much for covering him I wish there was more Johan content out there.

7:58 Johan: " *SAY THAT TO MY FACE YA LIMP NOODLE!* "

this a blessing thank you for this

Omg! I've been thinking abt Johan and Judai for years. And finnaly I can find someone talk it out loud . Thank you soo much ! Im glad i saw this vid. YGO GX is always my most fav part.

your edits are a blessing, i swear to g.

Crystal Boi. Uses one of my favorite decks from GX.

I can see why a lot of people ship these two super hard, romance usually occurs when two people that enjoy each other’s company has to interact for a prolonged period of time. Of course that’s also how good friendships comes to be but i think the way the writers constructed the characters dialogue in relation to Johan, specially Judai’s dialogue to give weird feelers that there might be something more than just friendship while leaving it cloudy enough to be pass as friendship for the people who dont see it that way makes me believe it was intentional. The way I see it, the guy who wrote it knew damn well what he was doing, he knew there was a market for this kind of “BFF shipping” so he wrote it pink like that. :v

Thank you for this video, I love it! You were spot on with analyzing Johan's importance in the series. Personally, when I was talking to certain friends about who is a true friend to Judai, I was thinking about Winged Kuriboh, Neos, Johan, and Yubel. I found that pretty relatable in the sense where it’s hard to find friends who are our true equals and who is THAT special to us, just like with Johan to Judai. I don’t know what to say, but I LOVED Judai’s development in the series and seasons 3 and 4 were the biggest points in the anime to me. It was also heartwarming and wholesome to see Judai and Johan’s bond, more than with anyone else in seasons 1 and 2. Either way, good job making these GX videos! I loved your analysis on all of them! Keep it up :) -From a fellow yugioh/anime fan PS I'm sure Johan fanboyed the most when Judai sang the second ending theme of GX.

This is the best video I've seen in my life and Im sad it wasnt longer. LOVE THIS BABY SO MUCH, HES THE BEST THANKS A LOOOOT!!!