First, the anime named Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Titular and focal character Yugi Muto is a short, pure-hearted high school student, whose grandfather runs a card shop. He is also a skilled card player, which are referred to as Duelists, complete with his own deck of trading cards. He is handed, prior to the first episode, fragments of an Egyptian artifact, known as the Millennium Puzzle, one of a handful of mysterious items. Assembling it, he becomes the host of an ancient spirit, the Pharoah (who is addressed to viewers as Yami Yugi), who suffers amnesia, bearing no recollection of his past. Events kick in when skilled Duelist Seto Kaiba, the CEO of KaibaCorp, visits Yugi's grandpa Solomon, who ends up kidnapped and beaten for the rare Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Defeating him with skill and the "Heart of the Cards", he is soon challenged again by many others, starting with Maximillion Pegasus onward. Assisted by his friends Joey Wheeler, Tea Garner, and Tristan Taylor, among other characters, Yugi and Yami must throw down against any Duelist standing before them, while finding the memories of the Pharoah. To them, it's more than just a game...
The anime span for 5 seasons. Airing on Kids WB initially, this title found its way to The CW4Kids (currently called Toonzai), the Saturday morning block for The CW which is owned by 4Kids Entertainment (which is in ways ironic, because WB changed into CW as of 2006, so in a way, it came right back to the premiering channel...) Each season obviously dealt with a new plot, and as more monsters debuted, the cards would surface all the same. As follows, this is how all 224 episodes were broken up:
- Season 1: Episodes 1 - 49
- Season 2 - Battle City Duelists: Episodes 50 - 97
- Season 3 - Enter the shadow Realm: Episodes 98 - 144
- Season 4 - Waking the Dragons: Episodes 145 - 184
- Season 5 - Grand Championship/Dawn of the Duel: Episodes 185 - 224
Since its debut, it was dubbed in English by 4Kids Entertainment, who is still ongoing despite issues concerning this series and companies TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems or NAS, who aired the anime in Japan prior to the U.S. License. Though this helped trigger the conflict, Funimation had their own dubbed viersion, which used the names of the Americanized 4Kids version, but had the settings of the original, taking place in Japan instead of the U.S. Funimation's also featured mild profanity, and followed closely to the original script. Only 3 DVDs were made, composing of the first 9 episodes, that were released. The fourth was finished, but legal issues, as well as the "competition" with the edited 4Kids episodes led to its uncertain status on whether or not it will resume. The role of Yugi was voiced in English by Dan Green (who voiced Ryuggi/Ryuji of DNA² and was the voice of Knuckles the Echidna for some of the Sonic the Hedgehog games as well as the anime Sonic X), while Chuck Powers (who voiced Richard Moore of Case Closed, as well as Uchi and the Principal in the anime Gokusen) voiced another English version that was released in Singapore. While each featured an opening and ending track done by a Japanese singer, the American versions lacks this, instead using mostly instrumental theme (which they alternate with each season), that features an anime voice clip saying "It's Time to Duel!" as the opening and ending theme.
Before grading, I promised to touch a little about the Trading Card Game this anime revolves from. Made by game company Konami, the monsters seen in the manga, created by Kazuki Takahashi, are made into cards people duel and trade with. Over the years, it has been revised under different rules and regulations, to ensure fair play, though usually one finds a way around this to make a nearly unbeatable strategy. Unlike the anime, the Monsters aren't projected and they don't come to life either, which is prominently seen in the anime. Moreover, certain cards aren't made to be used, while others are merely anime-exclusive. The Duel Disks, which debuted around the second season, were made as toys/accessories for fans. As the franchise progressed, the Duel Disks were used much more prominently and even featured new designs, extending into Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, and the recent Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal.
Initially, while Konami was the sole mastermind behind this cash cow, popular trading card distributor Upper Deck released the cards in America prior to the end of 2008, when Konami found out and sued Upper Deck for illegal distribution. A year later, Upper Deck was held liable for counterfeiting the TCG cards, and Konami, to this day, is the sole distributor of the cards, despite that other companies also make false copies of the said cards, sometimes trying to make it authentic, and even including the officially banned/exclusive monsters as cards. The TCG tournaments, sponsored by Konami, only uses the authentic cards distributed by them, the cards sold in packs and collectible tins in various stores, though some exclusive cards are obtained through other official means.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters had a long run, and while I don't favor much mainstream, it's between a 7 and 8 of 10 for me in general. Anime like this is made to help sales of the merchandise, and it did that well, because hadn't this surfaced in America, I would ignore the Trading Card Game still going on to this day.
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