Yu☆Gi☆Oh!

Bullies often target someone frail and weak—someone exactly like Yuugi Mutou. His beautiful childhood friend, Anzu Mazaki, is always there to stand up for him, but he can't depend on her forever. Katsuya Jonouchi, who is almost always accompanied by his verbal sparring partner Hiroto Honda, doesn't seem like a bad person either, despite always bringing Yuugi trouble. But most of all, Yuugi wishes for a true friend who understands him and would never betray him.

Yuugi treasures his Millennium Puzzle, an ancient Egyptian artifact that was brought into his grandfather's game shop. Believing that solving the puzzle will grant him his wish, he completes the puzzle, unleashing a new personality within him—the soul of the "King of Games."

Dark, twisted, strong, and reliable, the new personality named Yami Yuugi is the exact opposite of Yuugi. Upon any injustice toward him, Yami Yuugi takes over Yuugi's body and forces the opponent into a "Shadow Game." The stakes are high as whoever loses shall have a taste of the darkness that resides within their own heart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yami Yuugi Main

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Kaiba, Seto Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Jounouchi, Katsuya Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Mutou, Yuugi Main

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Mazaki, Anzu Main

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Honda, Hiroto Main

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Nosaka, Miho Main

Yukana Japanese

Yami Bakura Supporting

Kashiwakura, Tsutomu Japanese

Bakura, Ryou Supporting

Kashiwakura, Tsutomu Japanese

Kaiba, Mokuba Supporting

Miwa, Katsue Japanese

Kaji, Atsushi Producer

Kakudou, Hiroyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Sugishima, Kunihisa Director

Hosoda, Masahiro Episode Director

Reviews

Dec 27, 2024

MidniteAndBeyond

Recommended

Somehow I've never seen this until now! Yu-Gi-Oh was one of my favorite things in the world growing up, so of course I've known about Season 0's existence. It wound up being a lot more fun than I expected it to be! I've always loved the casual banter the characters had in between the card game segments in the main show, and Season 0 is just jam-packed with that, which I loved! I've always heard people say this show was SUPER DARK, but no. It's such a silly and wacky show that I absolutely can see myself loving as a kid if they had ever ... released it over here. It's also short, too. So it doesn't feel like a slog to get through, like the main series (despite how much I love it) can be at times. It was fun to see a wide variety of games besides Duel Monsters, Joey was super cool in this series, Téa and Tristan actually get to do stuff for a change, and there's just this other member of the group who just doesn't exist in the main show!? WHAT!? It felt so odd, but it was so fun to see this new dynamic to the group. I was also surprised to see so many moments in this show that would later go on to be reworked and used again in the main Yu-Gi-Oh anime series. It felt a lot like MOTHER/EarthBound Beginnings, in that way. It was super fun to see these characters in a new light that I wasn't used to. It felt so unfamiliar, but at the same time, I felt right at home with them. I'm glad to have had them in my life for so long and I'm happy to have at long last seen where it all began for this legendary franchise.

8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MidniteAndBeyond (119)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Apr 26, 2025

contraspas

Mixed Feelings

WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE CRAZY HAIR IN THIS ANIME??
Man, I really like how this anime delivers its ideas. Maybe that’s why it’s so fun. But even beyond that, the anime kind of turns into a jigsaw-style survival game. Like, in the first episode, Yugi’s edgy side just straight up kills a guy out of nowhere?? AMAZING introduction, though I wish that side of Yugi showed up more often, because in the end it turns into something like, "yeahh let’s win with the power of friendship."

The story? Very well written, and it manages to stay on track without getting lost or becoming tiresome. Sure, it has ... its fair share of character and plot clichés—without those, it wouldn’t really be a kids’ show, right? But even that works well with the formula it follows: introduce a bad guy, bad guy has to play a Shadow Game, bad guy loses and STARTS HALLUCINATING INSIDE HIS OWN MIND. And in the meantime, the show still manages to build character development leading up to the final arc, which brings us to around the halfway point—where things start to go in circles, and that’s where it begins to lose me a bit.
During this period of story and character development, Kaiba is introduced — essentially just another edgy character for Yugi to defeat. But instead of a clear win, the duel ends in a draw, which sets off a chain of events that directly affects the precious formula that initially made me so excited to watch the show. Once the best players of their respective games start challenging Yugi, things begin to shift. It's no longer about strategy or that dark tone the Shadow Games used to have — now it's just endless repetition of the same pattern: "You're better than me at this game, but I'll win with the power of friendship." It gets tiresome fast.

There's still a bit of strategic flavor in the final episodes, but it honestly becomes ridiculous, even for a kids’ anime. Yugi literally runs out of strategies and wins just by... believing in friendship? The best (or worst?) example is in the final game, where the dice just break due to the power of friendship (???). This turn toward a more nonsensical, less strategic style took away some of the original magic of the show.

That said, even with all the overused "power of friendship" moments, the final arc manages to hold on to some of its strengths. It brings back a bit of the strategic element here and there, and even better — the last battles start showing glimpses of the dark, twisted side the early part of the series had, which I really appreciated.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by contraspas (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 18, 2017

KillerSci-fi

Not Recommended

Watch this show only for the novelty of it being the OG series for Yugioh. I wouldn't recommend this show for someone who isn't already a fan of Yugioh Duel Monsters because in all honesty if you are looking for a great story or great characters or amazing art and sound this isn't the show for you. I would recommend this show for anyone who likes Yugioh Duel monsters to basically see it all started and the inspiration for some of the fights in duel monsters such as the first duel with kaiba to even the final arc of the show. This show is worthwhile ... for that reason alone. I would also probably someone who likes older 90s shounen as there is a lot of comparisons to be made with the older shounen and this show with some of the battles and the tropes having the feel of older shounen.

The story is mostly episodic with a villain of the week type of scenario however some of the battles take more than one episode to finish such as the last two arcs. For the most part this works in the shows favor as it allows characters to appear with there own wacky motive to then be mind crushed by yami yugi by the end of the episode in a unique take on a game (note: not just card games like in duel monsters). These games can range from Dungeons and Dragon irl to laser tag to even a couple of puzzle games. This is honestly the best part of the show, the games are very creative with a neat rule set, and the solution to these yami games are always as inventive as the games themselves so these battles are the highlight of the show and usually the episode as well. However what comes after is kinda disappointing, nothing. We usually don't get any kind of check to what happens to most of these characters after losing a yami game save for one or two people and even then it's pretty minor. I really didn't like this part of the show because it's a huge unexplored aspect of the show that could have made the whole victory feel more important or at least more helpful like one of gen characters who we actually do see after she losses still acts pretty much the same as before but this time is kinda psychologically forced (note: I don't think the show ever elaborated on the fact of it being an illusion or real, which also could have been an interesting aspect to explore) to act a certain way. The story other than that is otherwise pretty generic with a lot of elements taken from older shounen like the whole 4 heavenly deva of high school trope that we hear about but never actually seen aside from kill la kill and this show apparently. While at times people tend to say that this show is darker than Duel Monsters I have to respectfully disagree and put forth the notion that most of the time this show is even more childish than Duel Monsters in terms of well everything actually. I would rate this show a 5 in the story category but I feel the unexplored aspects of the show kinda hinder this show to be able to have this score. While it can be a slog to watch 27 episodes of the same formula of villain being a villain, yugi challenges the villain to a game, wins and mindcrush repeat but I feel the uniqueness of the games kinda help make them less of a slog to go through even though it took me more than 2 months to finish this show so....

Art is single handily the worst aspect of this show. It looks bad even by standards of the time period it came out in. It looks bad even by the standard of shows made 20 years before this one and that is only a slight exaggeration. The colors used in the show quite honestly look like something I could have drawn in with crayons or something. Art design is otherwise generic and lackluster aside from the choice of coloring (such as kaibas hair) I previously mentioned. Character design is actually pretty decent and while I have not read the original manga this show is based on it looks pretty similar at a cursory glance but I could be wrong though. This is not a show you'll watch for the pretty colors ever let's just put it that way so I'm under no disillusion that this show deserves anything less than a two as everything about the shows art is below average and downright dreadful.

Sound is also not really that good to be very honest. The soundtrack tends to repeat the same 4 songs throughout the show and the only one I actually liked was the yami yugi theme. That song matched the overall feel the show was trying to go for and is one of those songs that will get you hyped but even then it's not really a song I'll listen on repeat like Jojo or anything like that. Rest of the songs do set the mood rather well but that probably has something to do with the fact the only 3 moods you really need to set in this show is this villain is villainous, school life and get hyped yami yugi is here. While the sound is not as bad as the art it's still pretty bad with repetition of the soundtrack which really kills the mood and one decent song that I liked.

Characters are their own bag of mess. Most are relegated to the villain of the week type characters I already mentioned which basically means they are very one note and offer no reason for them being major grade A dicks all the time like for a lot of these villains I'm stuck wondering how are these people having a job like the doctor in one of the episodes. Main cast isn't any better tbh for some reason there is a character that isn't in Duel Monsters except she really is less relevant to the plot than tea (or anzu if you prefer). She and Honda (Tristan) were honestly really annoying characters throughout the entire series. They were completely unlikable with Miho and her overall shallow mindset and Honda trying to get in her pants and miho completely ignoring him. This joke got old even before it happened! That's how bad it is and it's repeated throughout the entire show. Rest of the main characters tend to act as they do in Duel Monsters, with only joey getting some minor development. So overall the characters are not the best.

As much as I've been harping on the show so far I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. As I've said previously you won't like the show if you didn't like Duel Monsters and luckily I really like Duel Monsters. It's nice to see the characters I've enjoyed in a different light (except Honda he cucked and sucked this version) and it's nice to see a different interpretation of the yami games. The games were always a fun watch minus like one that I felt the answer came a bit too easily but other than that it's a very fun watch. While I did enjoy the show a lot I still think this is an overall bad show that failed in a lot of crucial aspects whether it be the plot, characters, art and lackluster sound that I honestly wish were done as bad as what happened.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by KillerSci-fi (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Asexual and Aromantic Characters in Anime

by Keizakomu

50 Entries · 104 Restacks

Audience Shift

by stefanoiulli1999

42 Entries · 18 Restacks

Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime Watch Guide

by TheCoolGuy82

16 Entries · 24 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Here are the North American Anime & Manga releases for March 2015. Week 1: March 3rd - 9th Anime Releases Chronicles of the Going Home Club Complete Series Blu-r...read more

Mar 3, 2015 6:49 PM by Snow | Discuss (20 comments)

New Movie for the Original 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' Premieres in 2016

According to a scan, it was announced that the new movie from the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series will premiere in 2016. More information will be announced at a later tim...read more

Dec 11, 2014 4:21 AM by tsubasalover | Discuss (88 comments)

	Poll: Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode 27 Discussion --ALEX-- - Jul 9, 2013	28 replies	by Zensorium »» Jun 25, 10:55 PM
	Poll: Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode 26 Discussion PrOxAnto - Dec 26, 2014	11 replies	by Zensorium »» Jun 25, 10:23 PM
	Poll: Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode 25 Discussion pokecenter - Oct 12, 2013	14 replies	by Zensorium »» Jun 25, 10:07 PM
	Poll: Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode 24 Discussion pokecenter - Oct 12, 2013	15 replies	by Zensorium »» Jun 25, 9:40 PM
	Poll: Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode 23 Discussion pokecenter - Oct 12, 2013	9 replies	by Zensorium »» Jun 25, 8:16 PM

Our Top 5 Best and Worst American Anime Openings

Over the years we've seen a number of anime brought to America and slapped with a new opening; but just how good or bad were they? Let's find out!

by CriticalAndroid

39,298 views

Top 15 CRAZY Anime Hairstyles

You can tell a lot about someone by their appearance. So what would you say about these anime characters? Here are fifteen characters with hairstyles that are just too silly, even for anime.

by karuhigamiDURV

201,356 views

CollectionCharacter AnalysisFashionFunny