Story - A teenage boy named Yugi Mutou solves the Millennium Puzzle, which is an ancient Egyptian artifact. The puzzle is possessed by the spirit of an ancient pharaoh (Atem, Yu-Gi-Oh!, King of Games, etc.) The pharaoh remembers nothing of his past, besides the fact that he previously resided in Egypt. Yugi's grandfather owns a game shop, so he gets his deck of cards from him. The show is basically about a card game (or Duel Monsters). Yugi wants to help the spirit figure out the truth of his past, so he goes on a quest to find all 7 Millennium items and 3 very powerful cards called the Egyptian God Cards.
Along the way, he travels with his group of best friends, defeats great duelists, and even makes some enemies too.
Art - I really like the art in this anime. I think it fits very well with the series. The character designs are very unique, particularly Yugi's. You couldn't mistake that crazy, spiky, multicolored hair for any other anime character, after all. The monster designs are pretty cool, especially the dragon ones. They look pretty awesome, but a lot of others are cool too. The God Cards look pretty badass, even if the Winged Dragon of Ra is a mega ultra chicken (YGOTAS reference! :P)
Sound - I love all of the openings and endings for YGO. Even the 4Kids one is good. The voice acting is awesome too, and this goes for the English dubbed version as well! It's pretty rare that I actually like the dub as much as the original Japanese version. The background music fits very well with the scenes as well.
Character - The characters in this show are great. Yugi's friends are awesome. I think one of the best characters is Seto Kaiba; he's a really cool rival. He may act like a total douche, but I think on the inside he knows that he and Yugi are friends. Anzu/Tea is kind of pathetic, and I think she was only added so that there would be a female in the main cast. But still, it wouldn't be the same without her. Jonouchi/Joey pretty much won most of the time because of sheer luck, but he still developed a lot throughout the series and by the end of the series he learned a lot. Honda/Tristan? Well, I have no idea what his purpose was. I guess to make Yugi look better. But still, like Anzu, it wouldn't be the same without him. As feminine as they were, Pegasus, Marik/Malik, Dartz, and Yami Bakura were badass villains. Of course, I'm sure you could tell by my username, but Mai is my personal favorite character. :P Even if she didn't win a single card game on screen.
Enjoyment - I enjoyed every last second of this anime. Sure, you could argue that there's too many card games and not enough character development, but it is for a younger audience. When I was little, I didn't notice anything wrong besides the fact that Yugi always wins. I enjoyed this anime so much, that I teared up when I watched the last episode. Luckily, I soon discovered GX so I wasn't as depressed. Basically, this is a very fun anime and I highly recommend it to anyone.
Overall - As you've probably gathered from my review, this is one of my favorite anime of all time and I love it to bits and pieces. It may be just because of nostalgia, but still, it's definitely worth your time.
