Yu-Gi-Oh!

Title:Yu-Gi-Oh!
遊☆戯☆王
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Toei
Game loving Mutou Yugi was given an ancient relic by his grandfather called the Sennen (Thousand-Year) Puzzle. He completed the puzzle and was possessed by the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh. The Pharaoh has no memories of who he is or how he got in the puzzle to begin with. The Pharaoh looks out for Yugi and his friends and Yugi agrees to help the Pharaoh recover his lost memory and help him be put to rest so he can go on to the afterlife and finally leave Yugi's body.


27-episode TV anime that premiered on April 4, 1998.
Animated by Toei.
See series sequel, Yu-gi-oh! (movie), and series remake, Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 6 5 6 5 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:3433#1552]
While many may know Yu-gi-oh for the card game and the many anime that promote it, it was not always the case for its earlier manga chapters as they were more focused on Yugi's alter-ego, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, to punish evil characters with Dark Games to inflict ironic punishments on them. This anime adaptation adapts many of the chapters from the first 7 volumes of the manga from when Yugi first completes work on the Millennium Puzzle to the Monster World arc. It is a competent adaptation mostly faithful to the manga's premise, though does change things at a number of points with its plot and characters that include toning down on the severity of the Punishment Games Yugi's alter-ego inflicts on evil characters and giving Miho, a character who only appears in a single manga chapter, a larger role within the series. While having episodes focused on the punishments inflicted on evil characters, the series also devotes some focus on ongoing plot developments that have Yugi and his friends crossing paths with Seto Kaiba, who is a major villain in this series compared to being an anti-hero for later anime adaptations, and a couple Egyptian villains with ties to the Millennium Puzzle that Yugi has. It is somewhat better than the later anime adaptation since there is more variety to the games that Yugi's alter ego is challenged to or challenges villains to, though the series does end inconclusively since later chapters and the Duel Monsters anime would delve into the origins of the Millennium Items that got some focus in a couple episode arcs.

Overall, Yu-gi-oh's 1990s anime adaptation is mostly a curiosity due to the large differences it has compared to the later and much more popular Duel Monsters anime. While somewhat batter in quality compared to its popular counterpart due to not being an animated promotion for a trading card game, it doesn't really offer much that lets it stick out from other shounen anime and is mostly forgettable. However if you are a Yu-gi-oh fan curious in wanting to learn more about this series, I would at least recommend seeing it once.

Last updated Wednesday, October 25 2017. Created Wednesday, October 25 2017.

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