Duel Masters

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Duel Masters 2.0

Japanese: デュエル・マスターズ

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 26

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 21, 2002 to Apr 4, 2003

Premiered: Fall 2002

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: Studio Jack

Licensors: Hasbro

Studios: Studio Hibari, A.C.G.T.

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Comedy, Fantasy

Theme: Strategy Game

Demographic: Kids

Duration: 21 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 5.84¹ (scored by 12,939 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #10298²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4543

Members: 23,255

Favorites: 41

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

The world of Duel Masters is one of five great civilizations. Through a card game, duelists can bring these worlds into existence, making what was previously abstract into reality. These skilled duelists are known as Kaijudo masters.

Shobu Kirifuda is the best player at his local playground, and seeks to become a world-class master like his father. His first step on the road to conquest begins with winning a local tournament. Rather, it should have, except he is destroyed by the best Kaijudo master in the world, Knight. Shobu loses, but upon remembering the words of wisdom his father instilled into him, decides to continue on the road of becoming a duelist who can enjoy the game for what it is. And so begins his journey to victory－and as we all know, the journey is the most important part!

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Background

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Duel Masters
Side story:	Duel Masters Movie 1: Yami no Shiro no Maryuuou, Duel Masters Movie 2: Lunatic God Saga, Duel Masters Movie 3: Honoo no Kizuna XX
Sequel:	Duel Masters Charge
Spin-off:	Shinseiki Duel Masters Flash

Tanaka, Kan
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Mitsunobu, Seiji

Producer

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

Oota, Tomoaki

Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Ryota, Yamaguchi

Script

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Opening Theme

"Yume ga Kanau Toki (夢が叶うとき)" by Nao

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Ending Theme

No ending themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an ending theme here.

Reviews

Mar 9, 2024

LegionIscariot

Recommended

Duel Masters was a show with soooo much potential.
Its the Magic The Gathering version of Yu-Gi-Oh.

The plot is interesting. The main characters are likeable.
The duels are fun to watch. The monsters look cool.
The card game itself is actually well made and fun to play.

However the anime feels cheaply made in some areas. Especially the audio quality. Sometimes you can barely hear what some people are saying.
The animation is not great. Sometimes straight up terrible.

...

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Jun 21, 2021

prepare4trouble

Mixed Feelings

Who's the kid with the spiky hair?
(This review is based off the English dub.)

Duel Masters is a card game based show that aired on Cartoon Network 2004-2006, at the tail end of the original Yu-Gi-Oh's airing. Yu-Gi-Oh's popularity certainly influenced it being dubbed, but how good a show is it on its own?

Even having no interest in card game anime at the time, I ended up watching this as it was airing. The nostalgic cast was what originally caught my ear. There were a lot of familiar and talented VAs who seemed to have fun and do a great job here. But I stayed for ... the dub script. Was it a parody? Sort of, depending on how you define parody. This dub still followed the plot and advertised the card game per the original design. Those in charge of the English adaptation perhaps had similar thoughts to who dubbed "Ghost Stories", the dub of which was also released around the same time, that not taking the dub seriously could spice up an otherwise bland show.

So they added a lot of humor. Though I haven't seen the original, it's apparent much of it was dub rewrites. Characters regularly break the fourth wall, hang lampshades on anime tropes, engage in unneeded monologues, poke fun at character designs, make pop culture references, and have various other humorous quips and exchanges. Overall, it was pretty amusing, and I kept watching. I was even convinced to check out the card game.

However, it became dated pretty soon. Why? In July 2006, the month after the English version ended, LittleKuriboh started posting Yu-Gi-Oh abridged to YouTube. Not only was YGO abridged free and instantly available to anyone with an internet connection, but it had edgier humor and could cut large portions of the long card game sequences. For anyone who wanted card game anime humor, that was where to get it. Even though I liked Duel Masters, watching it after YGO abridged, it dragged. I quickly forgot it, probably along with many others.

Now more than a decade later, Duel Masters has also been made available streaming, so I decided to watch it again. I can recognize the same as I did at the time, it's a fairly generic card game anime that doesn't say much or develop its characters much. But it's still fun. The dub specifically is funny, laugh out loud funny at times, and it's also fun to watch Shobu run around and play his card game. It's a light, humorous show, slower paced than anything "abridged" but faster paced than other card game anime. It's relatively short and worth checking out if one likes card game anime and/or silly dubs.

Though this rec is regarding this 26-episode dub in particular, not the franchise as a whole. The various anime sequels I haven't seen, and seem impossible to find even to anyone who might want to watch them. The English version after episode 26 is an English language original that seems to lose something as it completely changes the voice cast and tries to write its own story instead of having fun with existing material. Luckily, this show can stand alone.

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Gift

Jul 3, 2018

askafahu

Not Recommended

Pros:

+ The battles in the beginning when this card-game concept looked fresh

+ Kyoshiro Kokujo

Cons:

- Annoying and uninteresting characters

...

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Poll: Duel Masters Episode 19 Discussion Shocked - Jan 2, 2015	1 replies	by Disapeared_Ghost »» Oct 18, 2021 2:02 PM
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