Yu-Gi-Oh! (second series anime)

Yu-Gi-Oh!, known in Japan and the rest of Asia as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (遊☆戯☆王デュエル モンスターズ Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu) is an anime based off of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga.

The series is not connected in any way to Toei Animation's Yu-Gi-Oh! television series, which aired on TV Asahi; both anime series are based off of the same manga series.

The second series of the anime was produced by Studio Gallop and Nihon Ad Systems, and the Duel Monsters series became popular in Japan and other places around the world. In North America, the series is distributed by Warner Bros. Television Animation and 4Kids Entertainment.

The "Death T" fight between Yugi Moto (Yugi Mutou in the manga and original Japanese adaptations) and Seto Kaiba is redone in the second series, and Miho Nosaka doesn't appear in the Duel Monsters series, unlike in the case with Toei's show. The second series more or less corresponds with the second fight between Yugi and Kaiba, and the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City plots and all of those onward in the manga. The Duel Monsters (a.k.a. Magic and Wizards) card game in the second season and beyond is a central plot device. Some "filler" material such as the Doma arc and the KC Grand Prix was added in the second series.

The series began its 224-episode run in Japan on April 18, 2000. The series ended its run on September 29, 2004. In Japan, the series aired on TV Tokyo. The English version is broadcasted on many channels. In the United States it is broadcast on Kids WB and on Cartoon Network. In Canada, Yu-Gi-Oh! is broadcast on YTV. In the United Kingdom and Australia, it is broadcast on Nickelodeon.

The characters did not play by the exact rules of the card game right away in the anime, only firmly playing by the trading card game rules near the start of the Battle City story arc.

English anime

Like many anime shows originally created for the Japanese market, a number of changes were made when the Yu-Gi-Oh! television show was released in the United States. These changes are frequently done to make the series more understandable, and to remove material which might be considered inappropriate for the target audience – young children. The changes to Yu-Gi-Oh! include:

• Americanization of character names (e.g. Yuugi Mutou, Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda, and Anzu Mazaki became Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardner, respectively)
• reworking the plot in certain parts of numerous episodes, mostly for censorship reasons, but also for unknown reasons (For example, In the first part of the Duelist Kingdom Semifinals where Yugi was afraid of using the Spirit of the Puzzle during his battle against Mai after what happened with Kaiba in the English Version. While in the Japanese version, he was more focused on Pegasus and was not taking Mai seriously).
• removing all instances of weapons (like guns and knives, which are often prevalent)
• removing scenes where two or more characters are fighting
• removing references to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq
• removing or obfuscating many references to religion, such as the pentagram
• removing or rewriting scenes where characters die or are in real danger of death (In the English anime, characters are instead threatened with the possibility of going to the Shadow Realm, or in some cases they are "captured").
• removing or editing scenes where monsters undergo some form of violent death (such as being eaten or being stabbed)
• removing scenes where characters make obscene gestures
• editing scenes where a female character or duel monster appears to be nude or might be wearing something a little too revealing.
• changing the setting of the country, from Japan to United States.
• removing assorted sexual innuendo
• removing much writing in Japanese and English (this resulted in the unusual design of the Duel Monsters cards in the English version of the series)
• removing any kind of reference that could cause children to develop a bad habit (truancy for example).

4Kids Entertainment has not translated the 27 episodes that make up Toei's series (e.g. the first series). The English version only consists of the second series made by NAS. Some people mistake Toei's series for a lost first season of the TV show.

The rating is either TV-Y7 FV or TV-PG in the edited on TV version.

4Kids and FUNimation since began to issue an uncut version of the Duel Monsters series on DVD. The uncut DVDs show episodes in their entirity without editing, use an English script that is much more faithful to the original Japanese, and include a Japanese-language track.

Plot

The plot of the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime closely follows that of the manga released in North America as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World (Volumes 8 to 38 in Japan), but in some cases extends or adds to the original story. The plot is divided into several story arcs:

• Duelist Kingdom: Duelist Kingdom is the second story arc in the manga and the first in the second series anime, and involves a tournament hosted by the game's creator, Maximillion Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version), on his own personal island. Pegasus, using the power of the Millenium Eye, manages to seal the soul of Solomon Moto (Sugoroku Mutou in the English manga and Japanese anime) away, and it is up to Yugi to save him. Meanwhile, Joey Wheeler (Katsuya Jonouchi in the English manga and Japanese versions) enters the tournament in order to pay for his sister's surgery. Meanwhile, Pegasus and several top executives at KaibaCorp plot to remove Seto Kaiba from the head of his company.
• Legendary Heroes: In a continued attempt to remove Seto Kaiba from his position as head of KaibaCorp, the Big 5 trap him in a virtual reality game based on Duel Monsters. Yugi and his friends enter the game to save him. The video game Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom was loosely based on this storyline.
• Dungeon Dice Monsters: When a new game shop opens to compete with Yugi's Grandfather's game shop (Kame Game Shop in the manga and original Japanese anime), Yugi is challenged by its owner, Duke Devlin (Ryuji Otogi in the manga and Japanese versions) in a game of his creation, with the title of "King of Games" on the line.
• Battle City: When Kaiba hears of the three legendary God Cards, Kaiba believes that with the three cards in his deck, he will be able to defeat Yugi. In order to obtain the God Cards, Kaiba hosts a tournament to take place in the streets of Domino, with the rule that each person that enters the tournament must ante up a card for the winners of the duels to keep. Meanwhile, Yugi hears of the three God Cards and how they are tied to an ancient Egyptian legend – one that involves the nameless Pharaoh. At the same time, Marik Ishtar, guardian of the Pharaoh's Tomb, wants the Pharaoh's power for himself, and seeks to defeat Yugi. In the Japanese version, he actually wishes to torture and kill Yugi for revenge and to free his family from serving the Nameless Pharaoh.
• The Virtual Realm: As Yugi, Kaiba, Joey (Jonouchi in the manga), and Marik are travelling to the destination of the Battle City Finals, the airship they are riding in suddenly takes an unexpected turn. The main characters find themselves trapped in a virtual reality simulation, in which the former executives of KaibaCorp plan to take their revenge against Yugi and Kaiba. This arc does not occur in the manga.
• Waking the Dragons (Doma): When an ancient organization known as Doma (not named in the English anime, although the name Paradius was used in both versions as a front for their operations) steals the God cards and begins to seal the souls of people and duel monsters in an effort to revive a monster thought to have lead to the destruction of Atlantis 10,000 years ago, it is up to Yugi and friends to stop them. To do so, Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba join forces with the three legendary dragons, Timaeus, Critias, and Hermos, and take on Doma's three swordsmen: Rafael, Valon (Varon in the Japaese version) and Alister (Amelda in the Japanese version).
• KC Grand Prix: With Doma defeated and no money to return home to Domino, Yugi and company enter a tournament hosted by Kaiba, in his new amusement park, in return for a ride home. With KaibaCorp crippled because of Doma, one tournament entrant seeks to finish the job and take down KaibaCorp for good.
• Millennium World: All of Yugi's friends and him enter the Millennium Puzzle with help from the Millennium Key to find the secrets of the Millennium Puzzle while it switches back and forth to Yami Yugi's past in Ancient Egypt.
• The Ceremonial Duel: Most of the quest is complete. Pharaoh Atem has gotten all seven millenium items, acquired all three Egyptian God Cards, defeated Zork Necrophadis in the Memory World, and has found out all about his past, including his name. Now, the pharaoh can quietly leave the mortal world, and join his faithful priests in the World of Death. However, the doorway to the World of Death can only be opened if the pharaoh is defeated in a duel. Little Yugi takes on the challenge, dueling Atem to let Atem go. Even though Atem would very much want to go to the World of Death, he has a good pride in his skills, and will never let anybody beat him easily.

Voice actors

Japanese version (seiyū)

• Yugi Mutou / Dark Yugi (Atem) – Shunsuke Kazama
• Sugoroku Mutou – Tadashi Miyazawa
• Katsuya Jonouchi – Hiroki Takahashi
• Anzu Mazaki – Maki Sato
• Hiroto Honda – Takayuki Kondo / Hidehiro Kikuchi
• Ryo Bakura / Dark Bakura (Zorc) / Thief King Bakura- You Inoue / Rika Matsumoto
• Pegasus J. Crawford – Jiro J. Takasugi
• Marik Ishtar / Dark Marik – Tetsuya Iwanaga
• Mokuba Kaiba – Junko Takeuchi
• Seto Kaiba / Seto – Kenjiro Tsuda
• Ishizu Ishtar / Isis – Sumi Shimamoto
• Mai Kujaku – Haruhi Terada
• Shizuka Kawai – Mika Sakenobe
• "Insector" Haga – Urara Takano
• "Dinosaur" Ryuzaki – Kin Fuiji
• ESP Roba – Hajime Komada
• Bandit Keith Howard – Hajime Komada

English version

• Yugi Moto / Yami Yugi (Atem) – Dan Green
• Téa Gardner – Amy Birnbaum
• Joey Wheeler – Wayne Grayson
• Tristan Taylor – Sam Regal / Frank Frankson
• Seto Kaiba – Eric Stuart
• Mokuba Kaiba – Tara Jayne
• Bakura / Yami Bakura / Thief King Bakura – Ted Lewis
• Solomon Moto – Adam Blaustein
• Maximillion Pegasus – Darren Dunstan
• Marik Ishtar / Yami Marik – J.T. Ross
• Ishizu Ishtar – Kayzie Rogers
• Odion Ishtar – Michael Alston Baley
• Duke Devlin – Marc Thompson
• Mai Valentine – Megan Hollingshead / Bella Hudson
• Serenity Wheeler – Lisa Ortiz
• Weevil Underwood – Jimmy Zoppi
• Rex Raptor – Sam Regal / Sebastian Arcelus
• Mako Tsunami – Andrew Rannells
• Bandit Keith – Ted Lewis
• Noah Kaiba – Andrew Rannells
• Dartz – Wayne Grayson
• Rafael – Marc Thompson
• Valon – Marc Thompson
• Alister – Ted Lewis

See also

• Yu-Gi-Oh! main characters
• Yu-Gi-Oh! minor characters

External link

English

• Official website of English Yu-Gi-Oh! Alternate URL: [1]
• Kids' WB Yu-Gi-Oh! website
• YTV Yu-Gi-Oh! website
• Nickelodeon United Kingdom Yu-Gi-Oh! webpage
• Nickelodeon Australia Yu-Gi-Oh! webpage

• Yu-Jyo – A Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode Guide – features TV episode synopses, with a focus on the differences between the American and Japanese versions
• J-Anime – features full-detail summaries of all the Japanese episodes (written in English) all the way to the end of the Ceremonial Duel. Also contains full-detail summaries of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Japanese

• TV Tokyo Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters site (in Japanese)