Yu-Gi-Oh!

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" is a thrilling anime that takes us on a captivating journey into the world of card dueling and ancient mysteries. The voice acting is both intense and heartfelt, making Yugi and his friends feel like lifelong companions. The film editing keeps the duels fast-paced and suspenseful, although the repetitiveness of certain episodes may be seen as a weakness. The music adds an extra layer of excitement, enhancing the intensity of the battles. The show's strength lies in its message of strategy, friendship, and the importance of believing in oneself. While the cinematography isn't groundbreaking, it effectively captures the energy and strategy involved in each duel. With an 8/10 rating, "Yu-Gi-Oh!" is a beloved classic that continues to enchant fans with its dueling magic, offering a thrilling ride filled with heart and strategy.

Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998) is the first anime adaptation of the popular manga by Kazuki Takahashi. Many fans call this series "season zero" even though it actually has nothing to do with the second series anime (the one 4Kids dubbed) other than sharing the same name and characters. This series essentially adapts the first 7 volumes of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga, before it became only card game oriented. Manga readers be warned, this is not a 100% faithful adaptation, there are quite a lot of differences such as Miho being a primary character and Kaiba having green hair. Story elements are changed and some chapters from the manga don't make it into the anime. However, despite these flaws, this is still a very enjoyable and fun adaptation. It keeps the soul of the manga intact and has fun with the changes. For one, Honda (Tristan) is a much more funnier character in the anime than he is in the manga. Anyway, I don't know if this really counts as a review, it's more a random assortment of my thoughts of the anime vs the manga, the manga is better overall but there's a lot of welcomed changes in the anime, making it a superb adaptation. 9/10.

While Yu-Gi-Oh is still going strong with the card game still ongoing and new anime series being release, it's interesting that I one day learned of this incarnation of Yu-Gi-Oh! Basically, the series we Americans started out with was not the first anime series for the franchise that would be one of 4Kids' popular dubs (as well as the one that got into legal trouble and eventually into bankruptcy), but this is the first one, an anime that was never dubbed, and for good reason.

This anime (referred to by fans as Series 0 or Season 0) is based more on the manga, as the card game the franchise is known for is not the main focus. Instead, it is about Yugi building the Milennium Puzzle, but in doing so, he awakens the spirit of a pharaoh who takes over his body when he or his friends is in danger to challenge bullies and criminals with Yami Games, where losing or getting caught cheating is punished by a grim fate (although the grim demise is actually an illusion that ends up breaking the villain of the episode mentally). Yeah, this is reason why this anime was never localized: other than not dealing with the Duel Monsters card game that the franchise would focus on (even though it featured in some episodes), the anime was dark and violent to the point where 4Kids probably decided that no amount of editing can tone it down for the company's target audience of kids like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was, despite the fact the series' violence was already toned down from the manga it was adapted from, as here, Yami Yugi is more of an anti-hero who punishes people instead of the noble pharaoh who, in the 4Kids dub, would lecture some villains about the folly of their ways and the heart of the cards, although he does change his ways near the end of the series.

While the anime is good, it does have some flaws when compared to the manga. Being at only 27 episodes, most chapters are not adapted, and a minor character from the manga, Miho Nosaki, who was only in one chapter, was promoted to a main character here, and sadly, some people has claimed her to be annoying and only being there to mess up, so chances are whether or not you'll like the character will be based on how you can handle her actions. While the series was never localized, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters did adapt some scenes for flashback sequences to explain some events (with some stuff changed), but this is a neat curiosity to check out.

I watched the popular 2000s series before watching this one, so it was a bit of a shock. This series feels like it has a lot more variety of games and stories. For that reason, it is less focused and has less overall arcs. At the same time, it is a bit more grounded and the characters are less cheesy. Viewed as a prototype of the main series, it is interesting and strange.

This is the uncensored japan only, prequel to the main series but also a more shortened version of it. The dark tone and the style are weird but great. One thing I like is that this version has more tea and yugi moments. This is a yugi that starts shadow games. I honestly don't understand why this never was released outside japan, it's not that much violent (except just 1-2 episodes about death)