Yu-Gi-Oh!

Duel Monsters
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Yu-Gi-Oh!

Cover of the first DVD volume, featuring the protagonist Yugi

Mutou and the Duelist Kingdom arc's antagonist, Maximillion Pegasus

(Pegasus J. Crawford).

遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズ
(Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu)

Genre Adventure, fantasy, science fiction[1][2]

Anime television series

Directed by Kunihisa Sugishima

Produced by Hidetaka Ikuta

Naoki Sasada

Noriko Kobayashi
Written by Junki Takegami (eps 1-121)

Atsushi Maekawa (eps 122-144)

Shin Yoshida (eps 145-184,199-224)

Akemi Omode (eps 185-198)

Music by Shinkichi Mitsumune

Studio Gallop

Licensed by List[show]

Original network TXN (TV Tokyo)

English network List[show]

Original run April 18, 2000 –September 29, 2004

Episodes 224 (List of episodes)

Anime television series

Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters

Directed by Eric Stuart

Produced by Katia Milani

Lloyd Goldfine

Written by Michael Pecerlello

Norman J. Grossfeld

Music by Gil Talmi

Studio 4Kids Entertainment

 Licensed by 4K Media Inc.

Original network AU

9Go!

Original run September 9, 2006 –November 25, 2006

Episodes 12 (List of episodes)

Anime and manga portal

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 a Japanese anime series animated by Studio Gallop based on the Yu-Gi-
Oh! manga series written by Kazuki Takahashi. It is the second anime adaptation of the manga
following the 1998 anime television series produced by Toei Animation. The series revolves around
a young High School boy named Yugi Mutou who battles opponents in the Duel Monsters card
game. The series begins from the end of volume 7 before adapting the remaining chapters of the
original manga.
Yu-Gi-Oh! originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 2000 to September 2004, running for 224
episodes. A remastered version, highlighting certain duels, began airing in Japan in February
2015.[3] An English-language adaptation of the series by 4Kids Entertainment aired in the United
States from September 29, 2001 to June 10, 2006 on Kids' WB.
The series has since spawned its own metaseries. Duel Monsters would be succeded by Yu-Gi-Oh!
GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, and Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule
Monsters, an American-produced miniseries set during the fifth season (Inbetween the Grand
Championship and Dawn of the Duel arcs), aired exclusively in the United States in 2006. Three
animated films based on the series have also been produced: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of
Light, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time and Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions.[4]

Contents

 1Plot
o 1.1Season 1
o 1.2Season 2
o 1.3Season 3
o 1.4Season 4
o 1.5Season 5
o 1.6Differences from manga and Toei anime series
 2Localization
o 2.1United States version
 2.1.1Streaming
 3Voice cast
 4Card game mechanics
 5References
 6External links

Plot[edit]
Season 1[edit]
Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 1)
The story follows Yugi Muto, a boy who completed an ancient Egyptian artifact known as the
Millennium Puzzle, which led to him to inherit a spirit known only as Pharaoh. After defeating his
rival, Seto Kaiba, in a game of Duel Monsters, Yugi is approached by Maximillion Pegasus, the
creator of Duel Monsters, who uses the power of another Millennium Item, the Millennium Eye, to
kidnap the soul of Yugi's grandfather. Joined by his friends Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa
Gardner, Yugi enters Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom tournament, battling against many opponents in
order to defeat Pegasus and free his grandfather's soul. After the tournament, Yugi battles Duke
Devlin in Duke's new game, Dungeon Dice Monsters.
Season 2[edit]
Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 2)
Yugi learns that the spirit dwelling within him is a nameless Pharaoh from Egyptian times, who
doesn't remember his past. Yugi enters Kaiba's Battle City tournament in order to obtain the three
Egyptian God cards needed to unveil the Pharaoh's past. Along the way, Yugi encounters even
stronger opponents and more Millennium Items, including Marik Ishtar, the wielder of the Millennium
Rod.
Season 3[edit]
Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 3)
Yugi and his friends get sucked into a virtual world run by Noah, the legitimate son of Kaiba's
adoptive father, Gozaburo. After defeating Noah and the corrupt former KaibaCorp executives
known as the Big Five, their minds are returned to the real world, and the finals of the Battle City
tournament commence. Yugi defeats Kaiba and Marik to gain all three Egyptian God cards.
Season 4[edit]
Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 4)
The order of Orichalcos drains the power from the Egyptian God cards and begins gathering souls in
order to revive the ancient dragon, Leviathan. Yugi, Joey and Kaiba are each given a legendary
dragon card to fight the Orichalcos. Pharaoh faces Dartz, the leader of the order of Orichalcos, to
release all of the stolen souls, including those of Yugi, Joey, Kaiba and Pegasus.
Season 5[edit]
Main article: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 5)
Yugi and his friends battle in the KaibaCorp Grand Championship. Yugi wins the championship, and
they all finally return home. Meanwhile, Ryo Bakura, the owner of the Millennium Ring, is overcome
by the dark spirit within the Ring, which possesses his body and begins collecting the Millennium
Items. Yugi and his friends go to Egypt, where Yugi presents the Egyptian God cards in front of a
stone tablet related to the Millennium Items and finds himself sucked 5,000 years into the past, to
the time when the Pharaoh lived. Pharaoh and the dark spirit of Bakura battle and the Pharaoh
discovers more about his life in Egypt. Finally, Yugi and Pharaoh together discover the Pharaoh's
true name, Atem, and summon the three Egyptian Gods to defeat Bakura's evil, returning them to
the present day. With all the Millennium Items gathered, Yugi and Atem duel. Yugi defeats the spirit
so that Atem can return to the afterlife.
Differences from manga and Toei anime series[edit]
Starting from the point in the manga where the Toei series left off, Duel Monsters at first appears to
serve as a continuation of the earlier series, but there are differences between the two adaptations
that cause them to overlap. In particular, the Death-T tournament between Yugi and Seto Kaiba and
the entire Monster World RPG arc from the original series are both redone as single games of Duel
Monsters. Miho Nosaka, a one-shot character from the manga who became a main character in the
Toei series does not appear in Duel Monsters, while Ryo Bakura, who is part of the main cast in the
manga and often accompanied Yugi and his friends on their adventures, has a recurring role in this
series, and is formally introduced in the middle of the Duelist Kingdom saga, despite joining the
group an arc prior in the manga and at the end of the Toei series. While the Toei series introduces
the characters individually (including how they met) and shows Yugi obtaining and solving the
Millennium Puzzle, Duel Monsters begins with the characters already together. It skips the first fifty-
nine chapters (seven volumes) of the manga, although several scenes and plot points from
chronologically earlier events in the manga are reworked.
Another notable change is that unlike the manga, the Duel Monsters anime, as the title suggests,
focuses almost exclusively on the Duel Monsters card game. Many Duel Monsters scenes that were
not in the original manga itself are added, often changing parts of the plot to fit around added duels.
The Duelist Kingdom, Dungeon Dice Monsters, and the Millennium World arcs of the anime feature
heavy differences from their manga counterparts, often to the point where the plots are completely
distinct between the two mediums. Certain aspects of the plot that were considered disturbing in the
manga were also toned down for television.
Because of the difference in speed between the manga and anime releases, three filler story arcs
that are not found in later volumes were added to Duel Monsters:

 Virtual World (24 episodes; first section of Season 3)

 Waking the Dragons (40 episodes; Season 4)
 Kaiba Grand Championship (14 episodes; first section of Season 5)

Localization[edit]

The English Yu-Gi-Oh! logo

There are two English adaptations of the Duel Monsters anime. A United States adaptation by 4Kids
Entertainment aired in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand,
and a Southeast Asiaversion by Odex aired in Singapore and the Philippines. Both versions have
edits from the original Japanese animation, most of which are content edits.
United States version[edit]
In the 4Kids Entertainment adaptation, names such as Hiroto Honda, Katsuya Jonouchi, and Anzu
Mazaki were Americanized into Tristan Taylor, Joey Wheeler, and Téa Gardner respectively.
Though the series originally takes place in Japan, the setting was changed to the United States. All
the characters' origins are American as well, rather than Japanese. The Japanese sound
effects were replaced with familiar and newly created American effects, and the background music
was changed from the slightly more upbeat Japanese soundtrack to melodramatic synth music. The
opening and ending themes were changed from songs by various popular recording artists to an
instrumental song done with a synthesizer.
The appearance of the cards was changed to a new design only featuring the card art, attribute,
level, and stats rather than showing the real-life product. In an interview with Anime News Network,
4Kids Entertainment's senior vice president of digital media, Mark Kirk, claimed that the reason for
editing the appearance of the cards was because U.S. TV broadcast laws dictated that the cards
were not allowed to look exactly like the real cards that are sold; otherwise, the show would legally
be considered a commercial rather than a cartoon, and the cost to air it would be exponentially
higher.[5] However, two of the movies do contain the original card designs as they do not have to
comply with these regulations.
Most of the dialogue and several elements of the plot were changed for offensive content, time
constraints, and marketing reasons. Visual edits include removing blood and reducing the amount of
violence (such as censoring guns), changing some monster designs due to occult or sexual themes,
and rearranging scenes to make previous content edits make more sense. Because of these edits,
several continuity errors occur in the English version.
A separate "uncut" DVD release was commissioned between 4Kids Entertainment and FUNimation
Productions, featuring a new adaptation that is more consistent with the original. Each uncut DVD
contained 3 episodes available both in an uncut, unedited English dub and the original Japanese
format with English subtitles, and 3 DVDs were released, for a total of 9 uncut, uncensored and
unedited episodes. A fourth DVD containing episodes 10-12 was finished, but after a series of
constant delays the DVD was listed as unavailable.
The 4Kids dub has been marketed across several English speaking countries, and the movie and
special Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters were made for the American market.
Streaming[edit]
In July 2009, a 4Kids statement was released indicating that the entire first season would be
released with subtitles, and that there were plans to release the entire series subtitled on the
company YouTube channel in the near future. However, an announcement in August 2009 stated
that all the Japanese episodes were to be removed due to legal issues with ADK (NAS' parent
company) and Shunsuke Kazama, the Japanese voice of Yugi.[6][7]
On July 11, 2015, subtitled episodes of the series were uploaded on Crunchyroll.[8][9] The news came
over a week after an earlier announcement that streaming of subtitled episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!
GX would begin on August 1, 2015.[10]

Voice cast[edit]
See also: List of Yu-Gi-Oh! characters

Character Character
name name Japanese voice cast English voice cast
(Japanese) (English )

Yugi Muto/Pharaoh Atem Shunsuke Kazama Dan Green[11]

Katsuya Hiroki Takahashi (teen); Mariko

Joey Wheeler Wayne Grayson[12]
Jounouchi Nagahama (child)
Anzu Mazaki Téa Gardner Maki Saito Amy Birnbaum

Takayuki Kondo (Episodes 1-51); Sam Riegel (Episodes 1-10); Greg

Hiroto Honda Tristan Taylor Hidehiro Kikuchi (Episode 52 Abbey (Uncut dub EPs 1-10; Episode
onwards) 11 onwards)

Kenjiro Tsuda (adult); Kiyomi

Seto Kaiba Eric Stuart
Yazaki (child)

Yo Inoue (Episodes 1-40); Rica

Ryo Bakura Bakura Ryou Ted Lewis
Matsumoto (Episode 50 onwards)

Maddie Blaustein (Elderly, main

Sugoroku Solomon series and Pyramid of Light); Wayne
Tadashi Miyazawa
Muto Muto Grayson (Elderly, Bonds Beyond
Time); Marc Diraison(adult)

Tara Sands (Seasons 1-4 and Pyramid

Mokuba Kaiba Junko Takeuchi
of Light); Carrie Keranen (Season 5)

Pegasus J. Maximillion
Jiro Jay Takasugi Darren Dunstan
Crawford Pegasus

Megan Hollingshead (Seasons 1-

3); Bella Hudson (Seasons 4-
Mai Kujaku Mai Valentine Haruhi Terada
5); Kathleen Delaney (uncut English
dub)

Shizuka Serenity
Mika Sakenobe Lisa Ortiz
Kawai Wheeler

Sam Riegel (Seasons 1-3); Sebastian

Dinosaur Kin Fujii (Seasons 1-2); Yuichi
Rex Raptor Arcelus (Season 4); Anthony
Ryuzaki Nakamura (Seasons 3-5)
Salerno (Season 5)
 Weevil
Insector Haga Urara Takano Jimmy Zoppi
Underwood

Mako Daisuke Namikawa (adult); Yuki

Ryota Kajiki Andrew Rannells
Tsunami Nakao (child)

"Bandit"
Keith Steve Bandit Keith Hajime Komada Ted Lewis
Howard

Shadi Nozomu Sasaki Wayne Grayson

Rebecca Hawkins Kaori Tagami Kerry Williams

Arthur Hawkins Saburo Kodaka Mike Pollock

Ryuji Otogi Duke Devlin Ryō Naitō Marc Thompson

Sumi Shimamoto (adult); Sakura

Ishizu Ishtar Karen Neill
Nogawa (child)

Tetsuya Iwanaga (adult); Akiko

Marik Ishtar Jonathan Todd Ross
Kimura (child)

Konta (adult); Sakura Nogawa Michael Alston Bailey (adult); Ted

Rishid Ishtar Odion Ishtar
(child) Lewis (child)

Noah Kaiba Chisa Yokoyama Andrew Rannells

David Wills (Seasons 3-4); Ted Lewis

Gozaboro Kaiba Tetsuo Komura
(Season 5)

Dartz Yu Emao Wayne Grayson

 Saruwatari Kemo Masahiro Okazaki Eric Stuart

Wayne Grayson (Episodes 128-148);

Isono Roland Masami Iwasaki
David Wills (all other appearances)

Mr. Morita Coach Morty Eiji Takemoto

Card game mechanics[edit]

Duel Monsters is heavily centered around the card game, with plot details revealed between game
turns. However, there are several differences between the rules as presented in the series and the
rules of the real-world Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.
The real-world rules essentially correspond to the "new rules for experts" set out by Kaiba at the start
of the Battle City story arc. Prior to this point in the anime, a simplified version of the rules, reflecting
that of the manga, is utilized, where monsters are summoned without tributes, a player's life points
can't be attacked directly, only one monster could attack per turn, and certain types of monsters are
stronger or weaker against other monsters of a logical type. These earlier rules are depicted with
considerable artistic liberty. For example, monsters can be "partially destroyed", or played as magic
cards.
At times, duels feature unusual events which can only occur because the field and monsters are
represented by holograms, allowing for exciting or dynamic visuals that accompany events which
could never be realistically employed in the real-life card game. A prime example of this is Yugi's
two-part duel against Panik in the Duelist Kingdom arc, in which, among other things, the light from
the manifestation of the Swords of Revealing Light dispels the darkness obscuring Panik's monsters,
and the flotation ring that is part of the Castle of Dark Illusions is destroyed, causing it to fall on and
destroy Panik's monsters.
Throughout the series, other inconsistencies appear, some more drastic than others. Some cards
are classified differently in Duel Monsters than the real-world game; for example, Flame Swordsman
is a normal monster in the series, but is a fusion monster in the real-world game, and Spellbinding
Circle was notably entirely redone as a "trap with spell card properties", complete with a different
function. Duelists are shown normal-summoning their monster cards in face-up defense position,
while this is only possible in the real-world card game when permitted by the effects of certain spell
or trap cards. Additionally, duelists often place their cards face-down in the graveyard, as opposed to
face-up. In the Battle City story arc, the "advanced rules" also prevent Fusion monsters from
immediately attacking when summoned, while there is no such provision in the real game. To avoid
this rule in the anime, the spell card Quick-Attack was created. From the Waking the Dragons story
arc onwards, no such provision exists, and the only difference from the real-world game rules is the
starting amount of life points, which is reduced for brevity. Sometimes during a single duel a rule will
seemingly be changed or ignored, usually for plot, dramatic, or in a few cases comedic effect. The
same rules are continued into and updated for the follow-up series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh!
5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.
Several cards were created exclusively for the anime, including unique cards that are tied to story
elements, such as the fairy tale themed cards and the Golden Castle of Stromberg of the Grand
Championship arc, and others created specifically for a single duel. Also, certain cards like Dark
Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon are not nearly as rare in reality as they are in the anime.