Series: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Studio: Toei Animation
Year: 1998

Intro

One day, I decided to try to watch the entire series of Yu-Gi-Oh! I did sort of watched it during my childhood, but only the English dubbed version was available in the United States. I somehow was put off by a lot of the voice acting which made me quit watching the series.

Years later as an adult, I watched it in Japanese and found out that it makes a huge difference in how certain characters are perceived. I hated this anime in English, but I really loved it in Japanese.

Plot

Yugi Mutou is a young boy who struggles to make friends but is a great player in the TCG game, Duel Monsters. One day, he comes across a very complex puzzle and is able to assemble it which causes him to be able to summon an alter ego. Together they take on all comers and duel against everyone on their journey together to uncover who this alter ego is. During this time, they must save the world by playing this popular game.

Good

There’s a lot of action especially when there’s an episode where a duel is involved. There are all kinds of decks, strategies, and even different variations to the traditional one on one. We’ve seen two on two, Dice Monsters, and handicap matches.

This series also taught many valuable lessons on life. Lessons included the power of friendship, never giving up, and trying your best.

Bad

There was a certain arc that I didn’t like which was the virtual reality one. I won’t go too much into details about it, but it took forever to finish, and it cut into what was already a good arc in the battle city one. They could have saved dozens of weeks by skipping this filler arc because later on, it doesn’t even get revisited.

Overview

When people talk to me about dubbed and subbed anime not really making a difference, I show that this series is a prime example of voice actors making the difference between watching and quitting. I didn’t get to enjoy this series much back then, but I’m glad that even though it’s a bit too late, I got to watch it the right way how it was intended. The voices make the characters while the names shape them. This series has also inspired me to check out the successor series and movies.

Overall rating: 4/5
Reviewed by: Timtastic