If you are reading this then that means you have just become interested in this show or you have watched it since the beginning, and now it owns your SOUL(evil laugh)....ahem, sorry for being over dramatic but that's what Yugioh is all about. Ever since i can remember this anime has been apart of my life, and actually got me into anime entirely, this show is about a card game that originates from ancient Egypt, where sorcerers used monsters for battling, and now in modern times it has been converted to a card game, that everyone, and i mean everyone takes it absolutely serious. Does this make the show cheesy, probably an entire cheese mountain as a matter of fact, but this adds to the charm of the show and keeps it from being too dark. And you better believe this show can get dark, with scary visuals and talk of peoples souls being stolen, the show maintains a dark atmosphere throughout. But what probably makes the show so enticing are the duels, which can range from being laughable to completely bad-ass, either way you will always be entertained while watching any duel, and you will never get tired of it, with a variety of amazing looking cards with different abilities, and trash talking between duelists, so much trash talking! Another thing that makes this show great are the characters, who are all very complex,interesting, receive excellent character development, and are all pretty likeable. The main character is named Yugi, a teenage boy who finds an ancient artifact called the millennium puzzle ( which is apart of a 7 piece set), inside of it lives the spirit of an Egyptian pharaoh, whose destiny is to save the world from all evil, and through his power he posses yugi and helps fight for him. Yugi's main group of friends are named Joey, ( who is probably the funniest, most relatable, and my personal favorite character in the show) Tristan, Tea, and bakura, who literally follow yugi everywhere, cheer for him, and give him strength through the power of friendship. This is used so much throughout the show, you better just start to think of friendship as a super power. And of course every anime hero needs a rival, and oh boy is Seto kaiba the best rival ever made, he is a teenage genius, billionaire, and the owner of his own gaming company, and is considered the best duelist in the world ( until Yugi beats him), he is shown to be very hostile, arrogant, and can be quite a dick grayson, however he is still a jerk with a heart of gold, super cool and has the most badass voice ever! I have just binge watched the entire show and to give you a taste of the awesomeness awaiting you, i will quickly summarize each seasons arc and grade them individually.
Season 1; Duelist Kingdom: Let me make one thing clear, in this season there are no rules for the actual game, instead so much stuff is made up, you wont be able to understand who is actually winning, and it can become hilariously bad, however it is still so much fun to watch! This season is still necessary to watch to understand all of the characters, and wrap your mind around the concept of the game. After defeating kaiba and his beloved blue eyes white dragon, yugi becomes the best player in the world. he is soon invited to a massive tournament on a island owned by the creator of the game, Maximillion Pegasus, who serves as the first villain of the show and posses the millennium eye, which he uses to start stealing peoples souls, including yugis' grandpas, this motivates yugi to enter the tournament, and defeat Pegasus and save his grandpa, alongside yugi, his best friend joey also enters the contest to win the prize money, and pay for his sisters eye operation, this provides both characters with excellent growth and motivation and makes it so hard to watch when they duel, especially with the heart wrenching song, "no matter what" playing in the background. kaiba also joins the frey, when his little brothers soul is also stolen. The villain proves extremely hard to beat, especially with his adorable toon cards, we also learn why hes stealing souls, and why he created the game, which just enhances this entire season. Despite its weirdness, it still remains a fan favorite. 5/10 Season 2; Battle City: This time kaiba starts his own tournament, with new rules ( the actual rules for the game), and with the awesome new "dueldisk", which allows duelists to play wherever they want. However a dark conspiracy is happening behind the scenes, a new villain named Marik, who posses the millennium rod, which gives him the power to control peoples minds, wants to gain the Egyptian God cards ( the most powerful cards in the game), and steal the pharaohs power. This season really establishes both the lore of the show and the actual game, and provides some of the best duels in the show, and you can certainly feel an increase of dread in the air. It also provides excellent foreshadowing of season 6 from exposition from Ishizu who is the owner of the millennium necklace, and mariks sister, she explains how the fate of the world rests in yugis hands. 8/10 Season 3; Virtual World: This season interestingly cuts in the middle of the battle city arc, but still pleasantly. On their way to the finals of battle city, Yugi, kaiba, and all their friends are somehow teleported to a virtual world that kaiba made, which they have visited before in late season 1. The villains are known as the big 5, which were kaibas business partners who attempted to take over his company by trapping his mind in the virtual world and accidentally got theirs trapped instead. This leads them to duel every one of the main characters, even the non duelists, for the right to leave the virtual world. The big five take the forms of monster cards, which makes the duels more interesting, also it brings home the fact that despite being virtual, everything in this world is real. In this season we learn more about kaiba then ever before, including about his evil stepfather and stepbrother. 8/10 Season 4; Waking the Dragons: In this season a ancient evil from Atlantis is unleashed, and old and new arch enemies of all the main characters begin fighting them using a cursed card call the seal of Orichalcos, which provides the player with extra power, but the loser will lose their soul, also the card comes with a badass theme. In this season Yugi is mentally, physically, and spiritually challenged, but luckily with the help of three legendary dragon cards, the tables are balanced, and it is just amazing to watch. 7/10 Season 5; The Tournament: After all the insanity of the last season, a break is welcomed. Again kaiba hosts a tournament in his own theme park! This is a good season, with the main characters dueling regular people. The only villain is an old rival of kaibas, who is just trying to publicly and corporately sabatoge him, you know simple stuff. 7/10 Season 6; Capsule monsters: This season gets us back to the weird, when again, yugi and his friends are sent to a bizarre world with real monsters. this season feels like a tabletop game, and despite being interesting, it still feels too bizarre, even for yugioh. 5/10 Season 7; Dawn of the Duel: The final season, is the perfect unification of all the lore established in the previous seasons. At long last the pharaoh and yugi learn of his ancient past and the ancient evil he fought. Again they are teleported to a strange land, this time Ancient Egypt, where we learn about the origins of the millennium items and the pharaohs destiny. Despite resembling a table top game like the previous season, this season proves to be far more interesting, so much i wish it was its own show! This seasons more interesting because of its end of the world feel, making it more darker, the addition of so many interesting new characters, including kisara, a girl with the spirit of the Blue eyes white dragon living inside of her. Also we learn more about a recurring villain named bakura, who is an evil spirit possessing one of yugis friends, and has been causing him trouble throughout the show, turns out to be the greatest villain of them all. The only way for yugi to defeat the evil once and for all, is for the pharaoh to learn his true name. This season certainly has the most impactful plot line, with the grim in the air and one of the most sad goodbyes ever, this is certainly one of the best seasons. 9/10
If your still reading this, then that means you love this show as much as i do, to this day my siblings and i are still obsessed with the game and with this delightful anime. The dialogue is probably the most hilariously bad thing about this show, even from a devout fans perspective, whether its the trash talking, the friendship rants, or the exposition, honestly i feel some of the dialogue was taken from a bad soap opera, but who doesn't like a bad soap opera. Yes, all the talk about friendship and the heart of the cards is corny and can become obnoxious, but it is still a great message for kids and adults as well, some of the dialogue will leave you feeling enlightened. Not to mention the intentional jokes are just golden! The voice acting is terrific, most of the time. This show also posses a kick ass soundtrack with great intro songs, and the background music is just to die for. The Mysticism, lore and world building is just fantastic. The animation will just blind you with awesome visuals everywhere, however many shortcuts were taken, including recycling older clips, and flashbacks( so many flashbacks). Is it true this show is only meant to sell trading cards, absolutely, in fact i wouldn't be an avid player of the game, if it wasn't for this show, in fact this is currently the only card game my siblings and i ever play. This show is indeed a feast for the eyes, ears, body and soul, and i promise you will be wanting to play the actual card game in real life by the end of it. And if your ready,Its time to DUUDUDUUUEELLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Season 1; Duelist Kingdom: Let me make one thing clear, in this season there are no rules for the actual game, instead so much stuff is made up, you wont be able to understand who is actually winning, and it can become hilariously bad, however it is still so much fun to watch! This season is still necessary to watch to understand all of the characters, and wrap your mind around the concept of the game. After defeating kaiba and his beloved blue eyes white dragon, yugi becomes the best player in the world. he is soon invited to a massive tournament on a island owned by the creator of the game, Maximillion Pegasus, who serves as the first villain of the show and posses the millennium eye, which he uses to start stealing peoples souls, including yugis' grandpas, this motivates yugi to enter the tournament, and defeat Pegasus and save his grandpa, alongside yugi, his best friend joey also enters the contest to win the prize money, and pay for his sisters eye operation, this provides both characters with excellent growth and motivation and makes it so hard to watch when they duel, especially with the heart wrenching song, "no matter what" playing in the background. kaiba also joins the frey, when his little brothers soul is also stolen. The villain proves extremely hard to beat, especially with his adorable toon cards, we also learn why hes stealing souls, and why he created the game, which just enhances this entire season. Despite its weirdness, it still remains a fan favorite. 5/10 Season 2; Battle City: This time kaiba starts his own tournament, with new rules ( the actual rules for the game), and with the awesome new "dueldisk", which allows duelists to play wherever they want. However a dark conspiracy is happening behind the scenes, a new villain named Marik, who posses the millennium rod, which gives him the power to control peoples minds, wants to gain the Egyptian God cards ( the most powerful cards in the game), and steal the pharaohs power. This season really establishes both the lore of the show and the actual game, and provides some of the best duels in the show, and you can certainly feel an increase of dread in the air. It also provides excellent foreshadowing of season 6 from exposition from Ishizu who is the owner of the millennium necklace, and mariks sister, she explains how the fate of the world rests in yugis hands. 8/10 Season 3; Virtual World: This season interestingly cuts in the middle of the battle city arc, but still pleasantly. On their way to the finals of battle city, Yugi, kaiba, and all their friends are somehow teleported to a virtual world that kaiba made, which they have visited before in late season 1. The villains are known as the big 5, which were kaibas business partners who attempted to take over his company by trapping his mind in the virtual world and accidentally got theirs trapped instead. This leads them to duel every one of the main characters, even the non duelists, for the right to leave the virtual world. The big five take the forms of monster cards, which makes the duels more interesting, also it brings home the fact that despite being virtual, everything in this world is real. In this season we learn more about kaiba then ever before, including about his evil stepfather and stepbrother. 8/10 Season 4; Waking the Dragons: In this season a ancient evil from Atlantis is unleashed, and old and new arch enemies of all the main characters begin fighting them using a cursed card call the seal of Orichalcos, which provides the player with extra power, but the loser will lose their soul, also the card comes with a badass theme. In this season Yugi is mentally, physically, and spiritually challenged, but luckily with the help of three legendary dragon cards, the tables are balanced, and it is just amazing to watch. 7/10 Season 5; The Tournament: After all the insanity of the last season, a break is welcomed. Again kaiba hosts a tournament in his own theme park! This is a good season, with the main characters dueling regular people. The only villain is an old rival of kaibas, who is just trying to publicly and corporately sabatoge him, you know simple stuff. 7/10 Season 6; Capsule monsters: This season gets us back to the weird, when again, yugi and his friends are sent to a bizarre world with real monsters. this season feels like a tabletop game, and despite being interesting, it still feels too bizarre, even for yugioh. 5/10 Season 7; Dawn of the Duel: The final season, is the perfect unification of all the lore established in the previous seasons. At long last the pharaoh and yugi learn of his ancient past and the ancient evil he fought. Again they are teleported to a strange land, this time Ancient Egypt, where we learn about the origins of the millennium items and the pharaohs destiny. Despite resembling a table top game like the previous season, this season proves to be far more interesting, so much i wish it was its own show! This seasons more interesting because of its end of the world feel, making it more darker, the addition of so many interesting new characters, including kisara, a girl with the spirit of the Blue eyes white dragon living inside of her. Also we learn more about a recurring villain named bakura, who is an evil spirit possessing one of yugis friends, and has been causing him trouble throughout the show, turns out to be the greatest villain of them all. The only way for yugi to defeat the evil once and for all, is for the pharaoh to learn his true name. This season certainly has the most impactful plot line, with the grim in the air and one of the most sad goodbyes ever, this is certainly one of the best seasons. 9/10
If your still reading this, then that means you love this show as much as i do, to this day my siblings and i are still obsessed with the game and with this delightful anime. The dialogue is probably the most hilariously bad thing about this show, even from a devout fans perspective, whether its the trash talking, the friendship rants, or the exposition, honestly i feel some of the dialogue was taken from a bad soap opera, but who doesn't like a bad soap opera. Yes, all the talk about friendship and the heart of the cards is corny and can become obnoxious, but it is still a great message for kids and adults as well, some of the dialogue will leave you feeling enlightened. Not to mention the intentional jokes are just golden! The voice acting is terrific, most of the time. This show also posses a kick ass soundtrack with great intro songs, and the background music is just to die for. The Mysticism, lore and world building is just fantastic. The animation will just blind you with awesome visuals everywhere, however many shortcuts were taken, including recycling older clips, and flashbacks( so many flashbacks). Is it true this show is only meant to sell trading cards, absolutely, in fact i wouldn't be an avid player of the game, if it wasn't for this show, in fact this is currently the only card game my siblings and i ever play. This show is indeed a feast for the eyes, ears, body and soul, and i promise you will be wanting to play the actual card game in real life by the end of it. And if your ready,Its time to DUUDUDUUUEELLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!