Yu-Gi-Oh!

OK, I'll admit it...I am a sucker for the "30 min. commercials". I have been ever since I was a kid back in the, uh, 80's. I would go out and buy all the brand-new cool Transformers featured in the cartoon. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?...I was there. I am every toy manufacturers' ... dream. Yu-Gi-Oh is the continuation of my bizarre fascination with cartoons.

What's so great about this cartoon. Honestly, I can't say what it is I like. OK, I lied. I absolutely love the duels! I'm not a huge Anime fan, so that really does nothing for me. The constant babbling about "friendship" and "love" I can certainly do without. Not that those are bad things, and it's good that kids are taught these values while being brainwashed into buying the game, but it can be *awfully* sugary-sweet, especially when you're, um, <mumble> twenty-eight </mumble>. But I really enjoy the duels and it makes me want to go out and buy the cards and play with other people. Unfortunately, I have no friends, and my wife doesn't have any interest in dueling me. Fortunately, there's Game Boy Advance. I was given Dark Duel Stories for Christmas and recently bought Eternal Duelist Soul...both great games, though EDS is definitely closer to the original game than DDS. The point being, this tv show is really nothing more than an avenue for advertising their games...and I love it!

Now, what I'd like to see is how well Yugi fairs against someone who has some really nasty cards in their deck....how would he handle having Raigeki and Dark Hole being smacked down on his Dark Magician and Summoned Skull????

When my brother started watching this show and I heard bits of it in the background I thought it sounded like the stupidest thing ever--I heard bits of dialogue along the lines of "Oh, yeah! Well I attack with my dark magician!" or "Now I shall harness the power of all millennium items and rule the world!" or "Ha ha, with the power of our friendship we will defeat you!" However, after I had been forced to actually watch several episodes and began to actually follow the plot and character development, I discovered to my surprise that this show, while it is basically just a marketing ploy to sell trading cards, is actually a complex and fascinating story with well-developed and multi-dimensional characters and relationships.

Now, granted, you have to have certain tolerances to enjoy this show: you have to accept the world in which the characters live, in which for some reason everything seems to ride on this certain card game, Duel Monsters, and in which there exist ancient items with various spirits trapped inside them. If you're inclined to dismiss the premises of the plot as stupid, then this show is not for you. Secondly, you have to tolerate the fact that much of the show consists of duels, in which the characters themselves compete in the card game that the show is designed to market. It helps if you're a 6 to 12-year-old boy (or anyone else, I suppose) and are actually into playing the card game yourself. Or, like me, you can simply realize that the game actually is quite interesting and complex, and in the show is used to advance the plot and character development, and just accept it. Finally, you have to tolerate a certain amount of sappiness--the main characters do often take the time to go on and on about the importance of friendship and courage and standing up for yourself, etc etc...however, I personally find this somewhat refreshing after watching my brother play countless video games where the main message seemed to be Kill Anything in Your Path if It Will Give You Energy Points or some such advantage. And the character relationships are complex enough that these speeches, when they occur, are actually meaningful and sometimes (at least to me!) quite touching.

The point is, don't dismiss this show. The animation is crisp and nuanced (except for occasionally when they decide for some reason to switch to exaggerated, cartoon-like animation, particularly with Joey--those moments are probably my least favorite aspect of the show!), and the characters are real, touching, and very entertaining. Suspend your cynicism and just let yourself enjoy the show--it's actually quite worth it!!

Yu-Gi-Oh has to be one of my favorite cartoons since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's about a boy, Yugi Moto, who must save his kidnapped Grandfather from an evil millionaire. How is he to do it? By playing Duel Cards on an island tournament, thats how. Each person he duels has their own motive for winning, whether it's to save a loved one (like his friend Joey), a personal vendetta (like Kaiba or Bandit Keith), or if they just want to buy more 'accessories' (Mia). I think seeing each character's personality, and how it reflects on their card playing, is one of the best aspects of this show. (especially Joey, he's so damn funny!)

This ain't no Pokemon folks, It's time to duel!

Yu-Gi-Oh! can be confusing to those with slower mind-speeds. The duels like all plot devises, are used to progress the plot and even develop the characters, and in an effort to do so, may annoy, frustrate, or even confuse some members of the audience unfamiliar with the game strategy and cards(effects). However, the these duels are essentially not difficult to follow.

The overall plot of the series is complex and very entertaining. Of the main characters, and aside from Yami Yugi, the villains are often the most compelling. The most interesting, and charismatic of these "villainous" characters being Seto Kaiba(thanks to the paragon voice-work of Eric Stuart), with Ryu Bakura, Maximillion Pegasus, and Marik Ishtar following close behind.

This series, unlike many others, requires the audience to possess functioning memories in order to recall the mythology. The plot is intriguing for those who enjoy mysteries and suspense(although watching YU-GI-OH! one need never fear the hero will be anything other than victorious).

Yu-Gi-Oh! is an excellent choice for children in order to instill morals and values; most importantly honor, courage, loyalty, and confidence in oneself.

Grade: A

The year was 1999. The 90s were making their final rounds in television, spewing out franchise after franchise to weather the storm of the 2000s. But out of all the shows created in these times, only two have withstood the test of time: Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh.

But why was Yu-Gi-Oh so successful? I mean, it was just a card game, right? There were plenty of other franchises that existed to sell toys: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Pokemon, Star Wars (you know, the prequels), etc. So what made Yu-Gi-Oh any different? Because, dear friend, while other shows' merchandise remained simple merchandise, Yu-Gi-Oh took a Japanese card game and turned it into A BATTLE OF GOD-LIKE ENTITIES, HERE TO RECLAIM THE WORLD THEY RULED SO LONG AGO.

Seriously, if you knew the card game, then you knew NOTHING about the show. It managed to tie this simple game to Egyptian rituals, malevolent spirits, dark magic, action, peril, souls being bound to items of immeasurable power... Does this bone-chilling stuff sound ANYTHING like a children's card game to you?

That's not to say that the show is dark; most of the time it's quite upbeat and focuses on the card game. But when the dark powers appear before us, you can FEEL the grandiose nature of their presence OOZING out of the screen. You can feel the fact that there are greater forces at work at all times; always lurking in the shadows, always calculating their next move, and the only ones that stand between us and their demented plans are Yugi Moto and company.

Now, I know a lot of people like to complain about how 4Kids took out a lot of the violence, the nudity, the use of guns in certain scenes, and... Honestly, I'm glad they did. This show doesn't NEED violence; it doesn't need a lot of the more adult content that the Japanese include in their kids shows. By taking a lot of those elements out, they made the show more about what it SHOULD focus on: the mysticism and the card game. Putting in guns, violence and other "questionable" content only serves to bring the show closer to reality, the exact opposite of magic. Yes, the first few episodes are pretty dumbed down and the first arc holds little basis in the actual rules of the game. But once it got past that stage, it turned into a really fun, really enjoyable experience, with the exception of some painfully obvious censorship here and there.

So if you love magic, mystery, secrets, dark realms of evil power, and 2D animation that still holds up today, check out this incredible show. It is AWESOME, man!