Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王 Yūgiō, Japanese for "King of Games") is a popular Japanese anime and manga franchise from Kazuki Takahashi that mainly involves characters who play a card game called Duel Monsters (originally called Magic & Wizards in the manga. See the section "cardgame" below for different names of the game) wherein each player purchases and assembles a deck of Monsters, Spell, and Trap cards in order to defeat one another and gain victory.
It began as a manga in Japan in 1996, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has since grown to an immensely successful global brand, spawning various manga and anime series, a real-life version of the card game featured in the story, Videogames, toys, and many other products.
Manga[]
Yu-Gi-Oh! (original manga)[]
The Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王, Yūgiō?) manga ran from 1996 to March 8, 2004. It was created by Kazuki Takahashi, and was one of the most popular titles featured in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. The manga initially focuses on Yugi Mutou, as he uses games designed by Pegasus to fight various villains. Yugi also gets into misadventures with his friends Katsuya Jonouchi, Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda. The plot starts out fairly episodic and includes only three instances of Magic and Wizards in the first seven volumes. In the eighth volume, the Duelist Kingdom arc starts, making the plot shift to a Duel Monsters-centered universe.The editors were Yoshihisa Heishi and Hisao Shimada. Kazuki Takahashi credits Toshimasa Takahashi in the "Special Thanks" column.
The English version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is released in the United States and Canada by Viz Media in both the Shonen Jump magazine and in individual graphic novels. The original Japanese character names are kept for most of the characters (Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda, for instance), while the English names are used for a minor number of characters (e.g. Maximillion Pegasus) and for the Duel Monsters cards. It is published in its original right-to-left format, and the manga is largely unedited. The translators of the English manga are Anita Sengupta (for volumes 1-7, and Duelist 1) and Joe Yamazaki (for Duelist 2-24 and Millennium World). Some content was revised in later printings of earlier volumes.
Viz released volumes 1 through 7 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga under its original title. The Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs are released under the title; Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, while the Egypt arc is released as Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World. As of the December 2007 issue, the series has come to a close, after a long five year run in the pages of Shonen Jump, America.
Yu-Gi-Oh! R[]
Yu-Gi-Oh R (遊☆戯☆王 R, Yūgiō Āru?) is illustrated by Akira Ito, one of the artists who illustrated the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, and supervised by Takahashi. Yu-Gi-Oh! R is a spin-off of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, with most of the same characters in a new plotline (which takes place between the Battle City story arc and the Millenium World story arc). The manga was first published in Shueisha's monthly magazine V-Jump on April 21, 2004.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX[]
The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (遊☆戯☆王 GX, Yūgiō Jī Ekkusu?) manga series is a manga adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX television series. The comic is illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama and differs from the anime, featuring new storylines and monsters, as well as some personality changes in some of the characters.
The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga series was released in North America by Viz Media. It has been serialized in the manga magazine Shonen Jump, beginning in January 2007. Unlike the other manga serialized in the magazine, one chapter of the manga is printed per issue. Unlike the English-language editions of the original manga series, the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga uses the English-language anime names created by 4Kids Entertainment. The GX episodes are rated 11+.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's[]
A Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (遊☆戯☆王 5D's, Yūgiō Faibu Dīzu?) manga began serialization in V-Jump Monthly Magazine from August 2009. It is written by Masahiro Hikokubo and Satou Masashi and, like the GX manga, will feature different storylines and monsters.
Anime[]
Yu-Gi-Oh! (TYu-Gi-Oh! Duel MonstersYu-Gi-Oh is produced by Toei Animation, as a 27-episode anime, based on Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volumes 1-7, volumes which do not focus much on Magic & Wizards, nor is it connected in any way to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters; another Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series made by Nihon Ad Systems (NAS), but is often referred to as the "first series" to distinguish it from the latter (or, erroneously, as Yu-Gi-Oh! Season/Series 0.) The show first aired on TV Asahi on April 4, 1998, and ended its run on October 10, 1998. This show was never shown outside Japan, presumbly due to the amount of violence involved in the series.[]
There are two English-language versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime: a United States version by 4Kids Entertainment and a South-East Asian version by A.S.N."Yu-Gi-Oh!", known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (遊☆戯☆王 デュエルモンスターズ, Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu?), is the series that introduced Yu-Gi-Oh! to the Western world. It was produced by NAS, and was first aired on TV Tokyo on April 18, 2000. It was later translated into more than 20 languages, airing in more than 60 countries. The series is mainly based on Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volume 8 (except that it has some of the content of volumes 4 and 5, albeit watered down and shortened) and onward, and ended its 224-episode run in Japan on September 29, 2004. btained the U.S. merchandising and television rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters from Konami. They partnered up with Warner Bros. and released their dubbed version of the anime on Kids' WB! on September 29, 2001, under the title of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is divided into a number of seasons. The show aired from September 29, 2001 th On May 8, 2001, 4Kids orough June 10, 2006.
Broadcasts The 4Kids English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is broadcast on many channels. In the United States, it is broadcast on Kids' WB!. In Canada, it is broadcast on YTV. In the United Kingdom it is broadcast on Nickelodeon, CITV (Children's ITV) on Freeview Channel 72, ITV2, ITV4, and in Australia on Network Ten and Nickelodeon. Like many anime originally created for the Japanese market, a number of changes (including the names of most of the characters) were made when the English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime was released.
During the dubbing process, the broadcast version of Yu-Gi-Oh! was edited and adapted to suit US cultural tastes. On October 19, 2004, 4Kids (in association with FUNimation) released uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! DVDs. These DVDs include the original, unedited Japanese animation and Japanese dialogue tracks with English subtitles, as well as all-new English dubs with translations closer to the original dialogues. Both language tracks use the original Japanese music. Each DVD contains three episodes; and there was a total of 3 DVDs released for a total of 9 episodes. The fourth DVD, called "Yu-Gi-Oh! Uncut Vol. #04: Red-Eyes Black Dragon DVD" (and containing episodes 10-12), was already dubbed and completed; ready to be sold and scheduled for release on May 4, 2005, but was never officially released. A 5th DVD containing episodes 13-15 was also mentioned around the time of the announcement of the fourth DVD (and before the indefinite delay/cancellation) but it is unknown if the DVD was merely planned for release or was actually completed and ready for release like the 4th DVD was. For a few months the release date(s) for the 4th DVD had been constantly extended or delayed, until it was confirmed that the product was not to be sold for an unknown amount of time, if ever. Shortly after that it had been confirmed 4Kids had decided to 'indefinitely delay' future releases of the series, saying that it was 'competing' with sales of their edited version DVDs and that they had decided to stop the uncut DVDs to stop the competition. (supposedly for a limited amount of time until all their edited DVDs were released and competition was over.) However, even now after all versions of their edited DVDs have been sold there still is no news on whether or not they plan to bring back the Uncut series. To this day the fourth DVD (and possibly fifth) still remain unreleased and the current status of the uncut DVDs and their future is unknown.
In May 2009, 4Kids Entertainment began to release full, uncut, English-subtitled Japanese-language Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes through their YouTube account. Many fans were very happy with this recent development, but those subtitled episodes were criticized for using the English dub character names in the subtitles as opposed to the Japanese names. 4Kids stated that they planned to release the entire series subtitled on their YouTube channel in the near future, but an announcement in August 2009 stated that all the Japanese episodes were to be removed due to legal issues with ADK (one of the primary producers of the anime) and Shunsuke Kazama, the original Japanese voice of Yugi. However, the English dub is still available, and 4Kids still plans to release subtitled versions of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, along with their English counterparts. However, due to the legal issues with Kazama, 4Kids has stated that they may have to drop all of the audio for Yugi's lines.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX[]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule MonstersSet a few years following the events of the previous series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX in Japan) follows a boy named Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki in the English version) as he attends Duel Academy in the hopes of becoming the new Duel King. The series ran for 180 episodes between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008. Like the previous series, 4kids handled western distribution and made several edits.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D'sYu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters (遊☆戯☆王 カプセルモンスターズ, Yūgiō: Kapuseru Monsutāzu?) is a twelve-episode anime commissioned, produced and edited by 4Kids (much like Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie - Pyramid of Light). It is set before the end of the second Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series (Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters), apparently somewhere in season 5. Capsule Monsters involves Yugi (Yūgi), Joey (Jōnouchi), Téa (Anzu), Tristan (Honda) and Yugi's grandfather Solomon (Sugoroku) being pulled into a world where Duel Monsters are real. They find monster capsules that they can use to summon monsters. It is similar to the Virtual RPG arc in many respects, but it does not seem to have anything to do with the early Capsule Monster Chess game featured in early volumes of the original manga. It is currently the only animated Yu-Gi-Oh! media not to be released in Japan. Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (遊☆戯☆王 5D's, Yūgiō Faibu Dīzu?), is another anime spin-off of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, with a new protagonist (Yusei Fudo) and a new plotline revolving on five dragon cards which when brought together, will revive a beast called the Crimson Dragon. The main difference between this and other "Yu-Gi-Oh!" shows is that they duel on motorcycles in stadiums using duel disks called Duel Runners, and a new breed of monsters called Synchro Monsters are introduced. It started airing on TV Tokyo on April 2, 2008, and started airing in the United States on September 13, 2008, once again licensed by 4Kids and featuring similar edits.Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL II A new Yu-Gi-Oh! series is to be announced at the Japanese encore screening of Yu-Gi-Oh 3D Beyonds time on February 20, 2011. It is to be called Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. In the near future, the main character's name is Yuma TSkumo as he is encountered by a spirit named Astral. They are working together to gather the scattered and dangerous "Number" cards. They are the missing pieces of Astral's memory. This series also introduces a new type of monsters called "Xyz Monsters"
MoviesA sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal has been announced and is to begin airing on October 7, 2012.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie[]
The first movie of the series was simply titled Yu-Gi-Oh and was released only in Japan. A thirty-minute movie produced by Toei Animation, it was first shown in theaters on March 6, 1999. Its characters are from the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
The movie is about a boy named Shōgo, who is too timid to duel, even after he got a powerful rare card; the legendary Red-Eyes Black Dragon, in his Deck. Yugi tries to bring Shōgo's courage out in a duel with Seto Kaiba, who has his eyes on Shōgo's rare card.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light[]
Yu-Gi-Oh the movie The Pyramis of Light, often referred to as simply Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, was first released in North America on August 13, 2004. The movie was developed specifically for Western audiences by 4Kids based on the overwhelming success of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise in the United States. Warner Bros. distributed the film in most English-speaking countries. Its characters are from the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. In the movie, Atem faces Anubis, the Egyptian God of the Dead.
The extended uncut Japanese version of the movie premiered in special screenings in Japan on November 3, 2004 under the title Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Pyramid of Light. The movie was then aired on TV Tokyo on January 2, 2005.
Attendees of the movie during its premiere (U.S. or Japan) got 1 of 4 free Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game cards. The cards were Pyramid of Light, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Blue Eyes Shining Dragon and Watapon. The Home Video Release also gave out one of the Free Cards with an offer to get all 4 by mail (though the promotion ended in December 2004). In Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom, free promotional cards were also given out, however, they were given out at all screenings of the movie, and not just the premiere. Two fans managed to steal a box of 2,400 cards in California. Disguised as Warner Bros. workers, they made off with the cards, claiming that wrong cards were sent, and promising a new shipment.[citation needed]
Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time[]
Yu-Gi-Oh 3D Beyonds Time, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Movie: Super Fusion! Bonds that Transcend Time (劇場版 遊☆戯☆王 ～超融合！時空を越えた絆～, Gekijō-ban Yūgiō ~Chō-Yūgō! Jikū o Koeta Kizuna~?), also known as Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th (遊☆戯☆王 10th?) is a 3-D film released on January 23, 2010 in Japan, with a North American release in Spring 2011. It celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first NAS series (as opposed to the anniversary of the manga) and features an original storyline involving Yugi Muto, Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki) from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yusei Fudo from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, fighting against a new enemy named Paradox.[8] It was first teased with short animations featured at the start of episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's during the third season.
Characters[]
The main characters of Yu-Gi-Oh! (all anime, manga and movies except Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's and Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal) are Yugi Mutou (spelled Yugi Muto in the English anime), a shy, pure-hearted high school student and gaming expert who possesses an ancient Egyptian relic called the Millennium Puzzle. Another character is named the Nameless Pharaoh or Yami Yugi (also known as Dark Yugi, "the other Yugi" and eventually "Atem"; the latter is his real name, revealed only near the end of the series), a darker personality held in the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi's best friends, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English-language anime versions), Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner) and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) are also primary characters, as well as Yugi's main rival, Seto Kaiba.