Has it been thirty years since we heard “It’s time to duel!”?
Yu-Gi-Oh! released a special MV in commemoration of its 30th anniversary since the manga debuted in 1996, using the opening for the fifth season of the anime, “Overlap,” performed by KIMERU. The MV takes viewers into the journey of Yugi Muto, from when he first assembled the Millennium Puzzle to when the Pharaoh said goodbye and felt his soul finally get released, touching on key duels throughout the series such as Duelist Kingdom, the Shadow Games, and Yugi and Atem’s quest to regain the latter’s memories as the once-powerful pharaoh of Egypt.
Written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. The success of the manga spawned a trading card game that was published by Konami and made it into the Guiness World Records as the best-selling trading card game in history. The game has sold approximately 35 billion cards as of January 2021. Yu-Gi-Oh! has also inspired a novel adaptation and video game.
The most successful adaptation is the anime which first premiered in 1998 and is more commonly known as Season 0 as it only loosely adapts the first 59 chapters of the manga. The manga was fully adapted, along with some anime-only events as the manga was still being serialized during its run, in a second adaptation called Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters which ran from April 2000 to September 2004 for 224 episodes. The popularity of the anime led to other series which featured new protagonists including Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, Zexal, Arc-V, VRAINS, Sevens, and Go Rush!! The protagonists from the first series returned in three films that premiered in 2004, 2010, and 2016.
Yu-Gi-Oh! follows a young high schooler named Yugi Muto who completes an ancient Egypt artifact called the Millennium Puzzle. In doing so, he unlocks the spirit residing within who takes over Yugi’s body whenever he has to duel. Together, Yugi and the spirit who later on discovers he’s a pharaoh from ancient Egypt who has lost all his memories, fight foes who seek to use the Millennium Items to control the world while also searching for clues to piece together the unnamed pharaoh’s memories.
Following Yu-Gi-Oh! Takahashi wrote other works, including a one-shot called Drump, The Comiq, and Secret Reverse. The mangaka died on July 4, 2022 when he drowned trying to save people from a rip current.
The manga is published in English by VIZ Media and Crunchyroll, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime stream the anime.
Source: YouTube
