is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from September 1996 to March 2004, with its chapters collected in 38 volumes. The series follows Yugi Mutou, a teenager who solves the ancient Egyptian Millennium Puzzle. This revives an ancient gambling spirit sealed inside the Puzzle, who commonly possesses Yugi to solve conflicts with various games. Yugi gradually learns of the spirit, with whom he eventually forms a friendship as he and his friends aim to discover the spirit's origin. By its later arcs, the manga largely shifts its focus to the collectible card game Duel Monsters (originally known as Magic & Wizards), where opposing players "duel" each other in mock battles of fantasy monsters.
The manga spawned a media franchise, which includes multiple anime series, spin-off manga, video games, and a real-world card game adapted from the fictional Duel Monsters game. The original series was adapted into two anime series: an eponymous series produced by Toei Animation, which aired from April to October 1998; and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, produced by NAS and animated by Gallop, which aired from April 2000 to September 2004. The franchise also includes four films, with an eponymous short film based on the Toei series released March 1999, and the Duel Monsters anime leading to the feature films Pyramid of Light (2004) and Bonds Beyond Time (2010), the latter also crossing over with the spin-off series Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, released in 2016, is set after the original manga series.
By July 2022, the manga had over 40 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series, and the overall franchise has generated over $5 billion in retail sales, making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
Plot
Yu-Gi-Oh! follows Yugi Mutou, a timid high schooler who is frequently bullied. Yugi loves to play games and, at the beginning of the series, is solving the , an Ancient Egyptian artifact, hoping that it will grant him his wish of making friends. Yugi eventually completes the Puzzle, causing his body to become the host to a mysterious spirit with the personality of a gambler. From that moment onwards, whenever Yugi or any of his friends is threatened, the spirit, briefly possessing Yugi, challenges the antagonist to that reveal that person's true nature, with the loser often being subjected to an adverse . Yugi and his friends gradually learn of the spirit's existence, referring to him as the "other Yugi".
As the series progresses, Yugi and his friends learn that the spirit is actually that of a nameless Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, who had lost his memories after being sealed inside the Puzzle. As Yugi and his companions attempt to help the Pharaoh regain his memories, they find themselves going through many trials as they wager their lives facing off against those who wield the other and the dark power of the Shadow Games.
Development In the initial planning stages of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Takahashi had originally wanted to draw a horror manga. Although the result was a manga revolving around games, some horror elements influenced certain aspects of the story. Takahashi decided to use "battle" as his primary theme. Since there were so many manga based around fighting, he found it difficult to come up with something original. He decided to create a battle manga where the main character does not hit anybody, but also struggled with that limitation. When the word "game" came to mind, he found it much easier to work with.
When an interviewer asked Takahashi if he tried to introduce younger readers to real life gaming culture referenced in the series, Takahashi explained that he simply included "stuff he played and enjoyed", and that it may have introduced readers to role-playing games and others. He added that he created some of the games seen in the series, stressing the importance of "communication between people" that is often present in tabletop role-playing games but absent in solitary video games and especially over the Internet, where quality communication is near impossible.
Takahashi had always been interested in games, claiming to have been obsessed as a child and remained interested in them as an adult. In a game, he considered the player to become a hero. He decided to base the Yu-Gi-Oh! series around such games and used this idea as the premise; Yugi was a weak, immature boy, who became a hero when he played games. With friendship being one of the major themes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, he based the names of the two major characters "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" on the Japanese word yūjō, which means "friendship". Henshin, the ability to turn into something or someone else, is something Takahashi believed all children dreamed of. He considered Yugi's "henshin" Dark Yugi, a savvy, invincible games player, to be a big appeal to children.
Takahashi said that the card game held the strongest influence in the manga, because it "happened to evoke the most response" from readers. Prior to that point, Takahashi did not plan to make the story about cards.
Takahashi said that the "positive message" for readers of the series is that each person has a "strong hidden part" (like "human potential") within himself or herself, and when one encounters hardship, the "hidden part" can emerge if one believes in him/herself and in his/her friends. Takahashi added that this is "a pretty consistent theme."
The editor of the English version, Jason Thompson, said that the licensing of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga had not been entirely coordinated, so Viz decided to use many of the original character names and to "keep it more or less violent and gory". Thompson said that the manga "was almost unchanged from the Japanese original". Because the core fanbase of the series was, according to Thompson, "8-year-old boys (and a few incredible fangirls)", and because the series had little interest from "hardcore, Japanese-speaking fans, the kind who run scanlation sites and post on messageboards" as the series was perceived to be "too mainstream", the Viz editors allowed Thompson "a surprising amount of leeway with the translation". In a 2004 interview, the editors of the United States Shonen Jump publication mentioned that Americans were surprised when reading the stories in the first seven volumes, as they had not appeared on television as a part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. Takahashi added "The story is quite violent, isn't it? [laughs]"
The English language release of the Duel Monsters anime by 4Kids has been subject to censorship to make it more appropriate for children; for example, mentions of death or violence were replaced by references to "being sent to the Shadow Realm".
The Japanese title, , stylized as , translates into English as "Game King". is also the name of the protagonist, while Yūgiō is also the title the second personality inhabiting his body holds as an invincible game master. Additionally, the character names "Yūgi" and "Jōnouchi" are based on the word .
Media Manga
Written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from September 17, 1996, to March 8, 2004. Shueisha collected its chapters in thirty-eight volumes, released from March 4, 1997, to June 4, 2004. Shueisha republished its chapters in twenty-two volumes from April 18, 2007, to March 18, 2008.
In North America, the manga was licensed by Viz Media. The company started publishing it in its Shonen Jump magazine from November 2002 to November 2007. The company also released the manga in volumes, divided in three series; the first series, Yu-Gi-Oh!, includes the first seven volumes, and were released from May 7, 2003; to December 7, 2004. The second series, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist includes the original volumes 8–31, and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Millennium World, includes the original volumes 32–38. Both series started publication in 2005; the first volume of Duelist was released on February 1, and the first volume of Millennium World on August 2. The 24th and last volume of Duelist was released on December 4, 2007, and the seventh and final volume of Millennium World was released on February 5, 2008. Viz Media republished the series in a 13 three-in-one volume edition from February 3, 2015, to February 6, 2018.
A two-part short story by Takahashi, titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Transcend Game, was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on April 11 and 18, 2016. Takahashi created the story to link the end of the original manga with the story of the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions anime film. Viz Media published the manga in its digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
Yu-Gi-Oh! R
A spin-off manga titled Yu-Gi-Oh! R was illustrated by Akira Ito under Takahashi's supervision. It was serialized in V Jump between 2004 and 2007, and its chapters were collected in five volumes. Viz Media released the series in North America between 2009 and 2010.
Anime Anime franchise overview No.TitleEpisodesOriginally aired / Release dateDirectorStudioNetwork1Yu-Gi-Oh!27April 4, 1998 – October 10, 1998Hiroyuki KakudōToei AnimationTV AsahiFilmYu-Gi-Oh!March 6, 1999Junji Shimizu2Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters224April 18, 2000 – September 29, 2004Kunihisa SugishimaGallopTXN (TV Tokyo)FilmYu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of LightNovember 3, 2004Hatsuki Tsuji4Kids EntertainmentGallop3Yu-Gi-Oh! GX180October 6, 2004 – March 26, 2008GallopTXN (TV Tokyo)MiniseriesYu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters12September 9, 2006 – November 25, 2006Eric Stuart4Kids EntertainmentGallop4Kids TV4Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's154 + 1April 2, 2008 – March 30, 2011Katsumi OnoGallopTXN (TV Tokyo)FilmYu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond TimeJanuary 23, 2010Kenichi Takeshita5Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal73 + 1April 11, 2011 – September 24, 2012Satoshi KuwaharaTXN (TV Tokyo)6Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal II73 + 1October 7, 2012 – March 23, 2014TXN (TV Tokyo)7Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V148April 6, 2014 – March 26, 2017Katsumi OnoTXN (TV Tokyo)FilmYu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of DimensionsApril 23, 2016Satoshi Kuwabara8Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS120May 10, 2017 – September 25, 2019Masahiro Hosoda (#1–13)Katsuya Asano (#14–120)TXN (TV Tokyo)9Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens92April 4, 2020 – March 27, 2022Nobuhiro KondoBridge10Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!151April 3, 2022 – March 30, 2025ONAYu-Gi-Oh! Card Game The Chronicles10April 21, 2025 – presentTakashi KaigaKonami AnimationYouTubeTotal13 1237 + 7April 4, 1998 – present —
Television series Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998 TV series)
The first Yu-Gi-Oh! anime adaptation was produced by Toei Animation and aired for 27 episodes on TV Asahi from April to October 1998.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2000 TV series)
A second anime television series adaptation, produced by NAS and animated by Gallop, was broadcast for 224 episodes on TV Tokyo from April 2000 to September 2004.
Capsule Monsters
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters consists of 12 addendum episodes of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters series, commissioned, produced and edited by 4Kids Entertainment, which aired in North America between September and November 2006.
Films Four theatrical animated films based on the franchise have been released.
Yu-Gi-Oh! (1999)
Based on the Toei animated series, the thirty-minute Yu-Gi-Oh! film was released in March 1999.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, often referred to as simply Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, was first released in North America in August 2004. The film was developed specifically for Western audiences by 4Kids based on the success of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise in the United States.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time is a 3D film that was released in Japan in January 2010 and in North America in February 2011.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions