Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王, Yūgiō?, literally "Game King") is a popular game, Japanese anime, and manga franchise created by Kazuki Takahashi that mainly involves the card game called Duel Monsters (originally known as Magic & Wizards), wherein each player uses cards in order to defeat one another.
| Yu-Gi-Oh |
 |
遊☆戯☆王
(Yūgiō) |
| Genre |
Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Shōnen |
| Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! |
| Authored by |
Kazuki Takahashi |
| Publisher |
 Shueisha |
|
|
| Serialized in |
Weekly Shonen Jump
  Shonen Jump
 BANZAI!
  Shonen Jump |
| Original run |
1996 – March 2004 |
| No. of volumes |
38 volumes, with 343 total chapters |
| TV anime : Yu-Gi-Oh! |
| Directed by |
Various |
| Studio |
Toei Animation |
| Network |
TV Asahi
 ABS-CBN, Studio 23, Hero TV
 Indosiar
 Star Channel |
| Original run |
April 4, 1998 – October 10, 1998 |
| No. of episodes |
27 |
| TV anime : Yu-Gi-Oh! (known in East Asia as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters) |
| Directed by |
Various |
| Studio |
Studio Gallop |
| Network |
TV Tokyo |
|
|
| Original run |
April 8, 2000 – September 29, 2004 |
| No. of episodes |
224 |
| Movie: Pyramid of Light |
| Directed by |
Ryosuke Takahashi |
| Studio |
Studio Gallop |
| Released |
August 13, 2004 |
| Runtime |
90 min. (101 min. in the Japanese version) |
| Spinoffs |
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! R |
Japanese manga
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh!
Running from 1996 to March 8, 2004, the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga created by Kazuki Takahashi was one of the most popular titles featured in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga initially focuses on Yugi Mutou as he uses games designed by Pegasus, to fight various villains. Yugi also gets into misadventures with his friends Katsuya Jonouchi, Anzu Mazaki, and Hiroto Honda. The plot starts out as fairly episodic and there are only three instances of Magic and Wizards in the first seven volumes. Starting around the eighth volume, the Duelist Kingdom arc starts and the plot shifts to a Duel Monsters-centered universe.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! R
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! R
Illustrated by Akira Itou, one of the artists who illustrated the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, and supervised by Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! R (遊☆戯☆王R) is a spin-off of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, with most of the same characters in a new plotline, which takes place between the Battle City arc and the Egypt arc. The manga was first published in Shueisha's monthly magazine V-Jump on April 21, 2004. Although there is no explicit explanation on the meaning of "R" in the title, the letter probably stands for "Reverse", "Revolution", "Rebirth", or 'Retold[1].
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (manga)
The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga series is actually a manga adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in English speaking countries) television series. The comic is illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama.
[edit] Japanese anime
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh!
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! (first series anime)
The logo for
Yu-Gi-Oh! Toei version (Japanese version)
Produced by Toei Animation, this 27-episode anime is based on Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volumes 1-7, which do not focus much on Magic & Wizards. It is not connected in any way to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, another Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series made by Nihon Ad Systems (NAS), but is often referred to as the "first series" to distinguish it from the latter (or, erroneously, as Yu-Gi-Oh! Season/Series 0.) First aired on TV Asahi on April 4, 1998, the series ended its run on October 10, 1998. It never aired on US TV.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! (second series anime)
Often referred to as simply "Yu-Gi-Oh!" or the "second series" of the Yu-gi-oh! anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ) is the series that introduced Yu-Gi-Oh! to the Western world. Produced by NAS, it was first aired on TV Tokyo on April 18, 2000, and later translated into more than 20 languages and aired in more than 60 countries. Mainly based on Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volume 8 and onward, the series ended its 224-episode run in Japan on September 29, 2004.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズGX), often known as "Yu-Gi-Oh! GX", is an anime spin-off of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, with a new protagonist, Judai Yuki (renamed Jaden Yuki in the U.S. version), and a new plotline that is not based on the original manga, although Yugi made a brief appearance in the first episode. The "GX" in the title stands for "Generation neXt". The series mainly focuses on the life in a duelist academy known as Duel Academy. Also produced by NAS, it was first aired on TV Tokyo on October 6, 2004.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters
Main article: Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters (遊戯王カプセルモンスターズ) has yet to be released in Japan.
[edit] English-language manga
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! manga volume 1 (English version)
The English version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is released in the United States and Canada by VIZ Media in both the Shonen Jump magazine and in individual graphic novels. The original Japanese character names are kept for most of the characters (Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda, for instance), while the English names are used for a few characters (e.g. Maximillion Pegasus) and for the Duel Monsters cards. Published in its original right-to-left format, the manga is largely unedited, especially compared to the English anime. The translators of the English manga are (for Volumes 1-7, Duelist 1, and Millennium World) Anita Sengupta and (for Duelist! 2 and beyond) Joe Yamazaki. Some content was revised in later printings of earlier volumes, Volume 1 especially, possibly to make the "non-duelist" part of the series more appropriate for kids (e.g. swear words were removed, a reference to Lucky Strikes was removed, an enjo kōsai reference was replaced with a "nightclub" reference in the reprinting of Volume 1, and Ms. Chono's line remarking "cigarettes, lipstick, condoms?" was revised to remove "condoms").
Viz released volumes 1 through 7 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga under its original title. The Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs is released as Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, while the Egypt arc is released as Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World. As of the January 2007 issue, the Egypt arc can still be found in Shonen Jump.
In the United Kingdom the Viz volumes are released by Gollancz Manga. Prior to Gollancz' printings, the North American volumes had been available through Amazon.co.uk for British consumers.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga series was released in North America by VIZ starting in August.[2] It is serialized in the manga magazine Shonen Jump. Unlike the other manga serialized in the magazine, one chapter of the manga is printed per issue. Unlike the English-language editions of the original manga series, the English-language Yu-Gi-Oh! GX manga uses the English-language anime names created by 4Kids Entertainment.[3]
[edit] Other published versions of the manga
[edit] Brazil
In Brazil, the manga is released monthly by Editora JBC, and uses the American names (like Téa, Joey, and Tristan) when possible; some of the more adult references remain. It also runs at 200 pages instead of the Brazilian standard 100 pages.
[edit] English anime
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh!
The English
Yu-Gi-Oh! logo
-
There are two English-language versions of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime: a United States version by 4Kids Entertainment and a South-East Asian version by A.S.N.
On May 8, 2001, 4Kids obtained the U.S. merchandising and television rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters from Konami. They partnered up with Warner Bros. and released their dubbed version of the anime on Kids' WB! on September 29, 2001, under the title of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is divided into a number of seasons. The show aired from September 29, 2001 to June 10, 2006.
- Season 1 (episode 1-49), aired from September 29, 2001 to November 9, 2002.
- Season 2 (episode 50-97), aired from November 16, 2002 to November 1, 2003.
- Season 3 (episode 98-144), aired from November 1, 2003 to September 4, 2004.
- Season 4 (episode 145-184), aired from September 11, 2004 to May 28, 2005.
- Season 5 (episode 185-224), aired from August 27, 2005 to June 10, 2006.
Starting from Season 3, a subtitle was added to the series title:
- Season 3 was known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Enter the Shadow Realm
- Season 4 was known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Waking the Dragons
- The first part of Season 5 was known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Grand Championship
- The second part of Season 5 was known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Dawn of the Duel
The 4Kids English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is broadcast on many channels. In the United States it is broadcast on Kids' WB!; in Canada, it is broadcast on YTV; in the United Kingdom it is broadcast on Nickelodeon and ITV2 and in Australia on Network Ten and Nickelodeon. Like many anime originally created for the Japanese market, a number of changes (including the names of most of the characters) were made when the English Yu-Gi-Oh! anime was released.
During the dubbing process, the broadcast version of Yu-Gi-Oh! was censored and adapted to suit US cultural tastes. On October 19, 2004, 4Kids, in association with FUNimation, released uncut Yu-Gi-Oh! DVDs after years of petitions from Yu-Gi-Oh! fans. These DVDs include the original, unedited Japanese animation and Japanese dialogue tracks with English subtitles, as well as all-new English dubs with translations closer to the original dialogues. Both language tracks use the original Japanese music. Each DVD contains three episodes. After three volumes were released, however, the DVD line was pulled for no apparent reason, with conflicting reports from various 4Kids representatives and analysts. Possibilities include money disputes with FUNimation, favoring the edited version over the uncut version, and Time Warner, owner of the Kids' WB! block, interfering with the release. Occasionally, online retailers such as Amazon will solicit future volumes, but nothing has come of it.
4Kids has no plans to translate the 27 episodes produced by Toei that make up the first series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Some people mistake Toei's series for a lost first season of the TV show, and refer to it as "Season (or Series) 0 or -1".
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
-
The logo for
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (US version)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX has an English version, titled Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in North America. Like the second series, it is licensed by 4Kids and has many of the same edits as the second series anime. The names of the main characters and many of the minor characters were changed.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX premiered on Cartoon Network in October 2005.
[edit] Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters
-
The logo for
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters (遊戯王カプセルモンスターズ, Yūgiō Kapuseru Monsutāzu?) is a twelve-episode mini-series commissioned, produced, and edited by 4Kids (much like Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie - Pyramid of Light). Set before the end of the second Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series (Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters) - apparently somewhere in season 5 - Capsule Monsters involves Yugi, Joey (Jonouchi), Téa (Anzu), Tristan (Honda), and Yugi's grandfather Solomon (Sugoroku) being pulled into a world where Duel Monsters are real. They find monster capsules that they can use to summon monsters. It is similar to the Virtual RPG arc in many respects, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the early Capsule Monster Chess game featured in early volumes of the original manga.
The first mention of Capsule Monsters came on the retailer website, Talkin' Sports [4] in December 2005, but this information was not widespread, and the existence of the project remained unknown to almost the entire fanbase until 30 January - 2 February 2006, when the Irish children's television strand The Den aired the first four episodes on RTÉ Two. Historically, it was not unusual for RTÉ Two to première episodes of the Yu-Gi-Oh! dub some time ahead of other markets, but their lack of any kind of promotion or fanfare in doing so meant that Capsule Monsters was unknown right up until (what is believed to be) the third episode was accidentally stumbled across by LiveJournal user Angryhamster, who posted the news and screencaps to a LiveJournal community, Play the Damn Card[5]. After initial con
