Anime

Yu-Gi-Oh, while available in many forms (anime, manga, card game, video games, etc.) is best known for its animated version. Picked up by 4Kids and the Kids WB, it is now being shown in the USA under the title "Yu-Gi-Oh!"

In Japan, the show actually began with what has been called "Season Zero," even though technically, the original Yu-Gi-Oh series was actually a whole different show, produced by a different studio.

This "first season" that never made it to the United States chronicled the adventures of Yuugi Mutou shortly after he'd finished assembling the Millennium Puzzle and gained its strange and mysterious powers. It also tells the story of how he met his friends, Jounouchi, and Honda.

However, many elements differ from the anime most Yu-Gi-Oh fans see on the Kids WB. For instance, Honda (Tristan) had a 'girlfriend' (he liked her, but you could never tell whether Miho liked him back) named Miho "Ribbon-chan" Nosaka, and Seto Kaiba had (gasp!) GREEN HAIR!

The concept of the show was a huge success, of course, since it was based off of Kazuki Takahashi's hit manga, "Yu-Gi-Oh!" which had been serialized in the Shounen Jump weekly publication since 1996 (and is still going strong!) Another animation company picked up where Toei left off, and the second series, "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" became a phenomenon! With Kaiba restored to his original brunette-edness, Miho left to the original manga, and the Millennium Puzzle assembled, a whole new adventure awaited Yuugi and his friends!

The first two seasons focused primarily on Yuugi's adventure in his first big Duelist Tournament, known as the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. A mysterious and menacing CEO, the wealthy Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillion Pegasus), kidnapped Yuugi's grandfather (or more accurately, his grandfather's SOUL!) through mystical means (using his Millennium Eye) and challenged Yuugi to duel him. Yuugi travels to the exclusive Duelist Island, meeting many interesting characters --friends and foes alike-- in order to save his grandfather.

Currently, the animated version has run 224 original Japanese episodes (not including the original series); up to 202 dubbed as of this writing on North American TV. There is also one Yu-Gi-Oh movie, which takes place between Season 0 (The Original Series) and Season 1 of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters," but it has not yet been slated for an English-release, though there is a subtitled version available (though the subtitle quality is not that good, from what I saw).

There is also the special movie "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie" (Yu-Gi-Oh: The Pyramid of Light) created specifically for the dub audiences. It takes place shortly after Battle City, prior to the Doma/Orichalchos arc. (This movie somewhat contradicts the anime canon, in reference to how Yugi obtained and solved the Millennium Puzzle.)

TV-Nihon has subtitled and released the original series (Toei) of Yu-Gi-Oh. It is available through BitTorrent on AnimeSuki.com.

4Kids/Funimation are continuing to release the dubbed anime on DVD, but they have temporarily (?) halted production of their uncut, bilingual DVDs. They have released up to 3 volumes of the Duelist Kingdom arc in this uncut, bilingual format.

 

 

 
 
 
 

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