Comprehensive information and links about Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! is a popular Japanese anime and manga franchise from Kazuki Takahashi that mainly involves characters who play a card game called in the manga. See the section "Card game" below for different names of the game) wherein each player purchases and assembles a deck of Monster, Magic, and Trap Cards in order to defeat one another.

Begun as a manga in Japan in 1996, the franchise has since grown to an immensely successful global brand, spawning various manga and anime series, a real-life version of the card game featured in the story, video games, toys, and many other products.

table universe consists of two manga series (the original series is split into three parts in the English translations), three anime series, and two movies.

. The manga originally focused on Yugi Mutou as he uses games designed by himself to fight various villains, and gets into misadventures with his friends Katsuya Jonouchi, Anzu Mazaki, and Hiroto Honda. The plots start out as fairly episodic and there are only three instances of in the first seven volumes. Starting around the eighth volume, the Duelist Kingdom arc starts and the plot shifts to a franchise, with most of the same characters in a new plotline, which takes place between the Battle City arc and the Egypt arc. The manga was first published in Shueisha's monthly magazine in English speaking countries) television series. The comic is illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama.

anime series made by Nihon Ad Systems (NAS), but is often referred to as the "first series" to distinguish it from the latter. First aired on TV Asahi on April 4, 1998, the series ended its run on October 10, 1998.

to the Western world. Produced by NAS, it was first aired on TV Tokyo on April 18, 2000, and later translated into more than 20 languages and airs in more than 60 countries. Mainly based on manga volume 8 and onward, the series ended its 224-episode run in Japan on September 29, 2004.

franchise, with a new protagonist, Judai Yuki (renamed Jaden Yuki in the U.S. version), and a new plotline that is not based on the original manga (the "" in the title stands for "Generation neXt"). The series mainly focuses on the life in a duelist academy known as Duel Academia. Also produced by NAS, it was first aired on TV Tokyo on October 6, 2004. It currently airs in the US on Cartoon Network as part of its Miguzi program block at 5:00 pm Monday-Friday.

On May 8, 2001, 4Kids Entertainment obtained the U.S. merchandising and television rights to from Konami. They partnered up with Warner Bros. and released their dubbed version of the anime on Kids' WB! on September 29, 2001, under the title anime is broadcast on many channels. In the United States it is broadcast on Kids' WB! and on Cartoon Network; in Canada, it is broadcast on YTV; while in the United Kingdom and Australia, it is broadcast on Nickelodeon. Like many anime originally created for the Japanese market, a number of changes (including the names of most of the characters) were made when the English anime was released.

On October 19, 2004, 4Kids, in association with FUNimation, released uncut fans. These DVDs include the original, unedited Japanese animations and Japanese dialogue tracks with English subtitles, as well as all-new English dubs with translations closer to the original dialogues. Both language tracks use the original Japanese music. Each DVD contains three episodes.

4Kids has not translated the 27 episodes produced by Toei that make up the first series anime. Some people mistake Toei's series for a lost first season of the TV show, and refer to it as "Season (or in North America.

Like the second series, it is licensed by 4Kids and has many of the same edits and names changes.

magazine and in individual graphic novels. The original Japanese character names are kept for most of the characters (Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda, for instance), while the English names are used for a few characters (e.g. Maximillion Pegasus) and the cards. Published in its original right-to-left format, the manga is largely unedited, especially compared to the English anime.

Viz released volumes 1 through 7 of the has been released only in Japan. A 30-minute movie produced by Toei Animation, it was first shown in theaters on March 6, 1999. Its characters are from the first series anime.

The movie is about a boy named Shougo Aoyama who is too timid to duel even after he got a powerful rare card, the legendary , in his Deck. Yugi tries to bring Shougo's courage out in a duel with Seto Kaiba, who has his eyes on Shougo's rare card.

", was first released in North America on August 13, 2004. The movie was developed specifically for Western audiences based on the overwhelming success of the anime. In the movie, Yugi faces Anubis, his arch-rival from his time.

The Japanese version of the movie premiered in special screenings in Japan on November 3, 2004 and normal theaters on Christmas Eve, 2004, under the title (遊戯王デュエルモンスターズ　光のピラミッド). The movie was then aired on TV Tokyo on January 2, 2005.

People who attended the movie during its premiere (U.S. or Japan) got free ) are Yugi Mutou (Yugi Muto in the English anime), a shy, pure-hearted high school student and gaming expert who possesses an ancient Egyptian relic called the Millennium Puzzle; and the Nameless Pharaoh, otherwise known as Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) (Dark Yugi is also known as "the other Yugi" and the "Nameless Pharaoh" (Namonaki Pharaoh in Japanese). His true name is revealed to be "Atem"), a darker personality held in the Puzzle. Yugi's best friends Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler), Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner), and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) are also primary characters, as well as Dark Yugi's main rival, Seto Kaiba.

is Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki in the Japanese version), an energetic boy who possesses great talents in .

The Duel Monsters themselves, as the primary battle agents in the series' card duels, can also be considered major characters, especially the three God Cards: Obelisk the Tormentor or The God of the Obelisk ("Giant Soldier - God of Obelisk" in the Japanese version), The Winged Dragon of Ra or The Sun Dragon Ra ("Winged Dragon - God of Ra"), and Slifer the Sky Dragon ("Saint Dragon - God of Osiris").

) tells the tale of Yugi Mutou, a shorter-than-normal high school student who was given an ancient Egyptian artifact known as the Millennium Puzzle in pieces by his grandfather. Upon completing the Puzzle, he is possessed by another personality which is later discovered to be the spirit of a 3000-year-old (or, in the English anime, 5000-year-old) Pharaoh, who forgot everything from his time. As the story goes on, the two of them, together with Yugi's friends, Anzu Mazaki, Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda, etc., try to find the secret of the Pharaoh's lost memories and his name, - by the card game follows the story of Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki in the Japanese version), a young talented duelist who is given the card "Winged Kuriboh" by Yugi before Jaden's admission to Duel Academy (Duel Academia in the Japanese version), an elitist boarding school established by Seto Kaiba. Jaden, receiving low marks in his admission tests, is placed in the Slifer Red dormitory (Osiris Red) reserved for students with the lowest grades. The story goes on as Jaden faces challenges from different students in Duel Academy, and later finds himself entangled in a conflict related to the hidden secrets of the academy.

anime and manga that were originally created as fictitious games for the series and was later turned into real games or video games.

anime and manga series introduces an original card game created by Takahashi. Different names can be used to refer to the game depending on where it appears:

anime (Japanese and English versions), manga (English version only), and movies. The name is introduced to replace of the monsters and the effects of Magic Cards (which only appeared occasionally). According to the author, the game was designed as such because he felt that the rules of to design, in just two episodes. After the first appearance of the game in the manga (in Volume 2, Duel 9), the reader response on it was enormousspan started getting calls from readers who wanted to know more about the game. Takahashi realized that he had hit on something, so he modified the storyline to feature more of the card game. With the advance of the manga, the game continued to evolve, becoming more complicated.

The similarities between the games, of note card design (brown with an oval on back), effects and terminology (discarding, graveyard, sacrifice), usage, and pictures (including occult or religious based icons, alluding to the early days of Magic: The Gathering) are all there. The name of Magic's creator is mirrored through the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillion Pegasus in the English versions), whom both share the same number of letters.

has been brought to life in three versions, by two different companies. The first version, known as the Carddas version, was first released by Bandai in September 1998. Only three boosters had been released for this version before the license of the card game was sold to Konami later. The game was popular, although it used a simplified and modified versionspan of the gaming rule used in the manga, and is less faithful to the manga compared with Konami's versions of the game.

The second version of the released later by the same company. The two versions are different in terms of design, with the looks of the former closer to those in the manga, to an extent that their effect texts are all directly quoted from the manga. Only 10 cards were released for this version, and Konami didn't have any gaming rules for these cards, as they were intended for collection purpose only. They cannot be used in the later-released , was first released on February 4, 1999, by Konami. The gaming rule of this version is much more sophisticated and mature compared with the Carddas version, while at the same time does a much better job in preserving the was an instant hit. And on March 1, 2002, the English version of the game was brought to the U.S. by Upper Deck Entertainment under the new name, ) — a dungeon crawl boardgame where the tiles are created by unfolding the faces of 6-sided dice. Video game: has been released as a real collectible game, but the game wasn't popular, and currently no more new figures are released. On March 29, 2003, Mattel released the English version of the first booster of . But so far, only three of the seven boosters in Japanese version have been released, with the last one released in June 2003.

instantly became the number 1 Saturday morning show for kids on network television, and has consistently maintained its lead with strong ratings among boys, leading Kids' WB! to expand the show to six days a week beginning April 1, 2002. The October 27, 2001 issue of -related products and games has drawn criticism from adults and anime fans, and the series is widely described as toyetic. Manga fans argue that the first several volumes are not merchandising-based. These volumes have no bearing on the 2nd series TV series as aired in the United States, which is the source of all US merchandising attempts.

-related books (not including manga)

Several books based on the manga and anime have been released in Japan and outside of Japan.

The Japanese Game Boy Advance games with "Expert" or "International" in the title follow the rules of the OCGTCG much more closely than the ones without. As well, "International" versions generally have multiple languages on all versions, and all versions of a given "International" title can play against each other via game link.