Yu-Gi-Oh!

Well the new Star Wars movie came out. But I'm not reviewing it yet. That review needs some more time. But for now I'm going to review a show I liked when I was a kid and see if it still holds up. That show is Yu-Gi-Oh. The show was based around a line of merchandise sort of like G.I. Joe or Pokemon. Just a side note I'm reviewing the version of the show that was dubbed into English instead of the Japanese version because I hate reading subtitles and it's the one I grew up with. Let's get started.

Protagonists: The main character of the series is Yugi Muto. He's your basic nice guy protagonist character. He isn't the most interesting but there isn't anything bad about him. One of the other important characters is his alter ego Yami who possess him to play card games (It'll makes sense later). Yami is some sort of all powerful entity and he's a bit less bland than Yugi but not all that interesting. There is also his best friends Joey, Tristan, and Tèa. Joey is the most interesting, Tristan doesn't have much of a reason to be there (Seriously you could cut him out after season one and almost nothing would change) and Tèa is the generic love interest character for Yugi. As you could have guessed by the way I described them they aren't all that interesting.


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Antagonists: Each season has their own separate antagonist. I'll go over each of them. Season one's antagonist is Maximilian Pegasus. He was actually pretty threatening what with his ability to steal people's souls. But the more I watch him the more comically over the top he becomes and the harder it is to take him seriously. Season two's main antagonists is Marik Ishtar and Bakura. They were less silly than Pegasus and actually managed to do some evil things. On a side note Bakura comes back in season five. They were the most interesting antagonists. The main antagonist of the season is Noah and his henchmen Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nesbitt, and Leichter. He's actually pretty creepy and not as silly as Pegasus. His henchmen are kind of just forgettable and gimmicky. The one downside to them is that their entire story arc is just filler. Seriously they are never brought up again. You could cut them out and almost nothing would change. Season four's main villains are Dartz and his minions Alistair, Raphael, and Valon. Dartz is kind of bland; he sort of comes out of nowhere. On the bright side he's a lot more threatening than some of the other villains. The main antagonist for the first half of season five is Zigfried von Schrouder. He was basically a more campy German version of Pegasus. And like Noah and Dartz he is never mentioned again after he is defeated. So overall the show has a good rogues gallery. Too bad most of them are inconsequential.






Minor Characters: Here are some of the characters that aren't as prominent as the rest but still pretty important. First off is Kaiba; he is Yugi's main rival. He's actually quite enjoyable. There's also Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba who is kind of just there to get kidnapped by whatever the season's main antagonist is. There's Not-Evil- Bakura. He isn't very interesting in his non evil form. Another minor character is Mai Valentine...... Get it.... It's a pun. She's kind of just a generic love interest for Joey. Marik also has a brother and sister named Odion and Ishizu. They are both pretty bland. There's also Joey's sister Serenity; she's only in the first season to give Joey a reason to be there and in the second and third seasons to wrap up her plot. There's also Yugi's grandpa Solomon Muto. He's only in the first season as a damsel (Or duke?) in distress before becoming a background character. There's also Rebecca Hawkins who at first is a one off character before becoming a main character in season four. There's Duke Devlin who invented some sort of dice based game. He could have been cut out and not much would have change. And last but not least there's Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood.... They kind of just show up from time to time and follow the protagonists. They're annoying end of story. The supporting cast is mostly okay with the best part being Kaiba.







Story: Okay so the story is as follows: Many years ago ancient Egyptians played a game involving monsters. The Egyptian Pharaohs sealed their spirits inside mystical items which have recently been found. The main story involves Yugi and Yami trying to find out the secrets of the items known as the Millennium Items. Before I start talking about each season I should address that every time there's a conflict it's always resolved in a duel. Not a duel with weapons but with playing cards. This is where the commercial tie in comes in. The game they play is Duel Monsters. Don't ask me to explain the rules I'm not exactly sure myself. And yes it is pretty silly that a children's card game is what resolves everything. Each season has a different story arc. I'll talk about each of them.
Season one features Pegasus trying to steal Yugi's Millennium Item by stealing his grandpa's soul to get him to sign up for his card game tournament..... It's kind of a stupid plan.
Season two has Kaiba starting his own tournament and Marik trying to win it and steal Yugi's Millennium Item. It's basically the first season's plot re-hashed.
Season three has Noah and his henchmen trapping the main cast in a virtual world and trying to possess their bodies. It's actually a pretty creative plot.... Too bad it's mostly filler and ends up sidelining the main plot of Marik.
Season four has Dartz and his weird motorcycle riding cult trying to summon the Leviathan. It's actually pretty dramatic..... But just like with Noah's plot it's mostly filler and is never brought up again. Not to mention Dartz himself is never foreshadowed.
The first half of season five is Kaiba hosting another tournament and Zigfried trying to win and expose Kaiba as a fraud (Long story). However, like the last two plots it's all filler.
The the second half of season five has the cast travelling back to ancient Egypt and trying to stop Bakura from destroying everything with a beast named Zorc. It's the most action packed season due to it probably having the least card games in it. Overall it has some pretty decent stories but way too much filler.




Conclusion: Yu-Gi-Oh is not a good show by any means. The leads aren't really very interesting and it has literally entire seasons of filler plot. But the strange thing is despite it not being great I still remember it years later. It's sort of like my generation's version of Transformers or the Adam West Batman. A show that's silly and not all that well written but very memorable with it's silliness. Let's be honest, if you watch the 60's Batman these days it's probably not for the story or characters it's for the campiness. In addition to the silliness some characters like Kaiba, Marik, and Noah are pretty entertaining. So whether you're in it for the silliness or just like card games I recommend this show. Keep in mind this review is for the English dub. I haven't seen the Japanese version and I'm not sure if that version is better or worse.