Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

Company type	Animated television series
Industry	Entertainment
Founded	April 2000 (2000-04)
Headquarters	Japan
Products	Anime television series
Parent	Studio Gallop

Yu-Gi-Oh!, originally titled in Japan and known as Rulers of the Duel in North America, is a Japanese animated series created by Studio Gallop and adapted from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga authored by Kazuki Takahashi. This series serves as the second anime rendition, following the 1998 adaptation produced by Toei Animation. The storyline follows high school student Yugi Muto as he engages in battles using the Duel Monsters card game, beginning its narrative from chapter 60 of the manga with plot deviations unique to the anime.

Broadcast on TV Tokyo between April 2000 and September 2004, the series comprises a total of 224 episodes. In February 2015, a remastered edition focusing on pivotal duels was released in Japan. The English version, localized by 4Kids Entertainment, was shown in the United States on Kids' WB from September 29, 2001, through June 10, 2006. Furthermore, twelve episodes produced specifically for American audiences under the title Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters were aired exclusively in Western regions during late 2006.

The success of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters led to an extensive franchise that includes multiple sequel series such as Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!. The franchise also expanded into cinema with three feature films: Pyramid of Light (2004), Bonds Beyond Time (2010), and The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016).

Season 1

Upon completing the ancient Millennium Puzzle, Yugi Muto becomes host to a mysterious spirit alter ego. After prevailing over his rival Seto Kaiba in Duel Monsters, Yugi faces Maximillion Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters, who kidnaps his grandfather’s soul using the Millennium Eye. Alongside friends Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner, Yugi participates in Pegasus’ Duelist Kingdom tournament with the goal of rescuing his grandfather.

Season 2

Yugi learns that the spirit residing within him is an unnamed Pharaoh from ancient Egypt who lacks memories of his past life. To uncover this hidden history, Yugi enters Kaiba’s Battle City tournament aiming to acquire three Egyptian God cards. During this journey, he encounters other wielders of Millennium Items such as Marik Ishtar with the Millennium Rod and his sister Izhizu Ishtar who possesses the Millennium Necklace.

Season 3

The initial 24 episodes present an original storyline where Yugi and his companions become trapped inside a virtual realm controlled by Noah—Seto and Mokuba’s illegitimate stepbrother and son of Gozaburo. After their escape, the finals of the Battle City tournament commence.

Season 4

While producing Millennium World, a new arc unfolds featuring the Orichalcos—a force that siphons power from Egyptian God cards and captures souls to resurrect the dragon Leviathan. To counter this threat and its leader Dartz, Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba each receive a legendary dragon card.

Season 5

The concluding season adapts the Millennium World storyline but opens with original anime arcs developed concurrently with the manga’s finale.

Following their victory over Orichalcos, Yugi and his friends compete in KaibaCorp’s Grand Championship against Kaiba’s adversary Zigfried. Subsequently, they travel to India and enter the Capsule Monsters universe.

The latter portion centers on Ryo Bakura, who is possessed by a malevolent spirit residing within the Millennium Ring. Yugi and his allies journey back 5,000 years where Pharaoh confronts Bakura’s dark entity known as Zorc the Dark One. Returning to present day, Yugi faces Pharaoh in a final duel that serves as their ultimate challenge.

Localization

In April 2001, 4Kids Entertainment secured the merchandising and television rights for the series. Their version featured modifications to character names, settings, visuals, sound effects, and included an entirely new musical score. Mark Kirk, senior vice president at 4Kids, explained that U.S. FCC regulations mandated that the "Duel Monster" cards depicted in the anime differ from the actual cards sold, to prevent the show from being categorized as an infomercial, which would increase daytime broadcast expenses.

On October 29, 2002, an album titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Music to Duel By was launched by DreamWorks Records in both CD and cassette formats.

Starting October 2004, Funimation Entertainment began releasing an unedited version featuring a fresh English dub alongside the original Japanese audio; however, only three volumes containing nine episodes were made available. In March 2009, 4Kids uploaded uncut Japanese episodes to YouTube, but these were removed by August due to rights complications.

On March 24, 2011, TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems filed a lawsuit against 4Kids over alleged underpayments related to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and reportedly terminated their licensing agreement. This legal action prompted 4Kids to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Although the dispute was resolved in March 2012, 4Kids divested its rights and assets connected to Yu-Gi-Oh! to Konami. Presently, Konami handles distribution of the series and its spin-offs and oversees English dubbing through its subsidiary 4K Media Inc..

Streaming

In July 2009, 4Kids intended to release the original Japanese anime version with subtitles on their YouTube channel. Nevertheless, these episodes were taken down in August 2009 following legal disputes involving ADK (parent company of NAS) and Shunsuke Kazama, the Japanese voice actor for Yugi. On July 11, 2015, the Japanese-language version became available for streaming on Crunchyroll. This release came after a prior announcement that subtitled episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX would begin streaming on August 1, 2015.

Cast

Primary cast

Role	Japanese		English
			4Kids Entertainment (2001–2006)		Voiceovers Unlimited (2001–2002)
Yugi Mutou / Yami Yugi	Shunsuke Kazama		Jay Snyder		Chuck Powers
Katsuya Jounouchi	Hiroki Takahashi		Joey Wheeler
			Vinnie Penna		Dwayne Tan
Anzu Mazaki	Maki Saitou		Tea Gardner
			Amy Birnabum		Alison Lester
Hiroto Honda	Episodes 1–51	Takayuki Kondou	Tristan Taylor
			Episodes 1–10	Sam Riegel	Brian Zimmerman
	Episodes 52–224	Hidehiro Kikuchi	Episodes 11–224; uncut	Greg Abbey
Seto Kaiba	Kenjirou Tsuda		Eric Stuart		Christian Lee
Mokuba Kaiba	Junko Takeuchi		Episodes 1–184	Tara Sands	Christian Lee
			Episodes 185–224	Carrie Keranen
Ryou Bakura / Yami Bakura	Episodes 1–40	You Inoue	Ted Lewis		Chuck Powers
	Episodes 41–224	Rica Matsumoto
Suguroku Mutou	Tadashi Miyazawa		Solomon Mutou
			Maddie Blaustein		Chuck Powers
Pegasus J. Crawford	Jirou Jay Takasugi		Maximillion Pegasus
			Darren Dunstan		Brian Zimmerman
Mai Kujaku	Haruhi Nanao		Mai Valentine
			Episodes 1–144	Megan Hollingshead	Alison Lester
			Episodes 145–224	Erica Schroeder
			Uncut version	Kathleen Delaney
Shizuka Kawai	Mika Sakenobe		Serenity Wheeler
			Lisa Ortiz		Alison Lester

External links

• Official TV Tokyo Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters webpage (Japanese)
• NASinc. Official Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters information (Japanese)