Yu☆Gi☆Oh! (Movie)

Yugioh 1999 is hardly a movie at all since it's only half an hour long. So it's pretty much just a 30-minute commercial for the manga and/or card game. As a Yugioh fan I still got some sort of enjoyment out of this, so let's start with the story of this so-called movie: A little boy named Shougo Aoyama finds a powerful card called Red-Eyes Black Dragon, but he is too scared to actually "fight" (aka play a card game), so he just doesn't use the card at all. Kaiba wants to have the card, so he invites Yugi, Shogo, and some other duelists to atournament. Wow, what a creative plot! Since Shougo doesn't want to fight, Yugi borrows his card and battles Kaiba instead. The first half of the movie is pretty much Shougo whining over the card and the second half Yugi and Kaiba playing Duel Monsters. Sounds pretty terrible, right? So why am I rating this a 6/10? Before I start with the positives, I want to mention some flaws in the plot. It's just so ridiculous how everyone is overreacting over this dumb card. Yeah, it's Yugioh, but even in the show, they don't react like this. On top of that, they mention in the movie that Red-Eyes is the second most powerful card, right after Blue-Eyes White Dragon. So I thought to myself "well the Dark Magician probably wasn't introduced at this point". But guess what: the Dark Magician actually appears in this movie! So shouldn't Shogo's Red-Eyes be the third strongest? Also, Shougo himself is pretty annoying and not memorable at all. The duel between Yugi and Kaiba was pretty sweet. I mean it's nothing you haven't seen before, but "Yugi vs Kaiba" is just a pretty safe bet, so it should appeal to most of the audience. The monster design looks especially nice. In fact, the whole movie looks pretty pleasant. Just from the coloring, you can tell it's based on the 1998 version (season 0), but the character design looks more like the Pegasus arc and onward. Also, Kaiba finally has his brown hair instead of green one. So the style looks like a mix between Season 0 and Duel Monsters. The music was good too. It had a very video game-ish feel to it, which I found very fitting. I especially liked the remix of Yugi's transformation theme. I really like how they actually use Kaiba's proto-type Duel Disk, which was introduced in the Pegasus arc and only used there. It makes no sense that it appears in this movie, but hey it's a nice touch. Also, Rex Raptor, who hasn't been introduced at this point makes a small cameo ;) If I actually went to the cinema to see this, I'd probably be very disappointed, but as a fan of the franchise who just discovered this obscure movie on the internet, I found this to be an alright experience.

It starts with a totally different mood than the conventional Yu Gi Oh Zero, with some relatively evolved and different characters (some even physically like Kaiba). The movie focuses on the card game "Duel Monsters", no longer featuring familiar games, and that's interesting, because that's when they started focusing on what would later become the well-known Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. The premise is generic, telling the classic story of the introvert and frightened boy who can stand out with something by luck (in this case, catch a Red-Eyed Black Dragon in a booster). I found it senseless that even after getting such a good card (The second bestin the game), the boy still had no confidence and still had an absurd fear of losing. Kaiba organizing a tournament, as usual, calls Yugi and Shougo to participate. I thought Shougo would duel, but again Yugi who will duel with Kaiba. It's a rather interesting battle that makes you slightly distressed and anxious, but the end is already as expected. But it was a good scene, I admit ... Final Thoughts: I don't even know if it should be considered a movie, it's more like an OVA. It seems more than just an advertisement to sell the cards that Bandai released shortly after the end of Yu Gi Oh Zero. The main mistake of this "movie" is that things happen too fast, it has a crazy pace. They tried to put too much into a short time!

⭐️NO SPOILERS BELOW⭐️ I recently stumbled upon a DVD of the 1999 Yu-Gi-Oh! movie at a yard sale and couldn’t resist the chance to revisit a significant part of my childhood. As one of the first anime I watched around the age of four or five, my memories were hazy, but diving back in was a nostalgic delight. The film’s animation quality remains really good to me, capturing the essence of the era and bringing back the excitement I felt as a child. The story was good, as someone mentioned below it does feel like an episode and not like a movie, at all. But that addsto the magic of it! I loves the story progression and the characters, especially Kaiba, his lines were the funniest and brattiest I’ve heard from a villain which is making me watch duel masters next. Revisiting this film was a heartwarming experience, reminding me of the joy and wonder that Yu-Gi-Oh! brought into my early years. The characters, the duels, and the underlying messages of bravery and camaraderie resonated with me just as much now as they did back then. For anyone looking to relive a piece of their childhood or introduce themselves to the origins of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, this 1999 film is a perfect choice. ❤️

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