Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Duel Monsters

I absolutely adore this anime. I remember being 8 years old and rushing home from school to watch my VHS Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes that my mother borrowed for me from the library. I got teased for being a girl and liking this show. Actually, I still do! :) Story - A teenage boy named Yugi Mutou solves the Millennium Puzzle, which is an ancient Egyptian artifact. The puzzle is possessed by the spirit of an ancient pharaoh (Atem, Yu-Gi-Oh!, King of Games, etc.) The pharaoh remembers nothing of his past, besides the fact that he previously resided in Egypt. Yugi's grandfather owns a game shop, so hegets his deck of cards from him. The show is basically about a card game (or Duel Monsters). Yugi wants to help the spirit figure out the truth of his past, so he goes on a quest to find all 7 Millennium items and 3 very powerful cards called the Egyptian God Cards. Along the way, he travels with his group of best friends, defeats great duelists, and even makes some enemies too. Art - I really like the art in this anime. I think it fits very well with the series. The character designs are very unique, particularly Yugi's. You couldn't mistake that crazy, spiky, multicolored hair for any other anime character, after all. The monster designs are pretty cool, especially the dragon ones. They look pretty awesome, but a lot of others are cool too. The God Cards look pretty badass, even if the Winged Dragon of Ra is a mega ultra chicken (YGOTAS reference! :P) Sound - I love all of the openings and endings for YGO. Even the 4Kids one is good. The voice acting is awesome too, and this goes for the English dubbed version as well! It's pretty rare that I actually like the dub as much as the original Japanese version. The background music fits very well with the scenes as well. Character - The characters in this show are great. Yugi's friends are awesome. I think one of the best characters is Seto Kaiba; he's a really cool rival. He may act like a total douche, but I think on the inside he knows that he and Yugi are friends. Anzu/Tea is kind of pathetic, and I think she was only added so that there would be a female in the main cast. But still, it wouldn't be the same without her. Jonouchi/Joey pretty much won most of the time because of sheer luck, but he still developed a lot throughout the series and by the end of the series he learned a lot. Honda/Tristan? Well, I have no idea what his purpose was. I guess to make Yugi look better. But still, like Anzu, it wouldn't be the same without him. As feminine as they were, Pegasus, Marik/Malik, Dartz, and Yami Bakura were badass villains. Of course, I'm sure you could tell by my username, but Mai is my personal favorite character. :P Even if she didn't win a single card game on screen. Enjoyment - I enjoyed every last second of this anime. Sure, you could argue that there's too many card games and not enough character development, but it is for a younger audience. When I was little, I didn't notice anything wrong besides the fact that Yugi always wins. I enjoyed this anime so much, that I teared up when I watched the last episode. Luckily, I soon discovered GX so I wasn't as depressed. Basically, this is a very fun anime and I highly recommend it to anyone. Overall - As you've probably gathered from my review, this is one of my favorite anime of all time and I love it to bits and pieces. It may be just because of nostalgia, but still, it's definitely worth your time.

I think the fact that YuGiOh (along with Pokemon) was the first anime I ever watched is enough to give this series a 10. That and the fact that this is one of the very few solid English dubs out there. Great story, plot, ingenius card game (think about it, Kazuki pulled the entire YuGiOh ruleset out of his ass and it's incredible!), along with enjoyable dialogue make this series a 10/10. Honestly, if you've never seen YuGiOh and you're on MyAnimeList to decide if you should watch it, then go ahead and do it. You've been missing out.

Not another card driven game! That is what I thought going into this. I had just gotten over my Pokemon and Digimon phase. So upon seeing this I quirked an eyebrow. However I gave it a whirl and watched it, and by god I actually enjoyed it. The characters are so much more dynamic than most of these genre of shows. There is a plot behind all the games (read the manga for more). The most interesting twist to me was the Egyptian background. That intrigued me to no end to see how exactly that would play out. Surprisingly to me it played out nicely,tying the characters together from their pasts to the here and now. There are a few arcs that also stand out above the rest. The first being the Battle City arc, where we first meet Malik Ishtar who is a young Egpytian boy. The Doma (Doom in the dub) arc that present to us Dartz, the King of Atlantis and his ragtag henchmen. The last arc, that deals with the origins of Yami Yuugi is also the best, and the one I am most fond of. Art and animation quality actually go up as the series goes on. The beginning characters didn't always look their best, but as it progressed the characters started to look good as well. So if you are trying to get someone into a card game based show, dip their feet into anime show them this. However, if you want the more serious and true nature of the show watch it subbed.

Now, when I say ‘Yu-Gi-Oh’, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the opening – with Yugi saying ‘It’s time to Duel’ and the D in Duel just echoes off into infinity… After all, silly little card games is all the show’s about right? Ha ha… WRONG. Sixteen year-old Yugi Mutou (I’ll use their Japanese names if you don’t mind) inherits a golden box from his grandfather, inside are pieces that form a puzzle. After eight years of struggle and determination, Yugi finally finishes this puzzle, but unknown to him are the deep secrets locked within it. Including a 3000 year old spirit, who looks justlike him, may I add! With the help of his friends – and sometimes even his bitter rivals, Yugi and his spirit friend, who he at the beginning dubs ‘The Other Me’, (Mou Hitori no Boku) go on many journeys, fight many duels and meet countless people that in the end all return back to the place that these fights began. The place that ‘The Other Yugi’ came from. Egypt. Now now… don’t start twitching when I say that. I mean it. When ‘The Other Yugi’ figures out his past life with the help of his friends, it brings them to Egypt. But don’t let me spoil anymore of it for you! You’ll have to watch to find out all the details that happen.

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