The Untold Truth Of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Whether you're a fan of the card game itself or you're in it for the story of restoring an ancient pharaoh's long-lost memories, there are plenty of little details from Yu-Gi-Oh! that casual fans could have easily missed.

Like many popular anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! started life as a manga, serialized in the popular manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. In this original manga, creator Kazuki Takahashi had a somewhat different vision for the series than what appears on screen. Protagonist Yugi Muto, whose name was changed to Yugi Moto in the English dub, is a bullied high school student. His grandfather, who owns a game shop, allows him to attempt to put together an ancient relic known as the Millennium Puzzle which Yugi, of course, solves.

This should all sound familiar to fans so far. Where the manga series takes a turn is that the alter ego that possesses Yugi after the Puzzle's completion isn't an unwaveringly just game master. Instead, this dark entity doles out vigilante justice against bullies and criminals, going so far as to permanently disfigure, brainwash, or dispatch them. These early chapters of the manga don't focus just on the card game "Magic & Wizards," as it was originally known, but instead rotate between various diverse games of chance and skill. When an opponent challenges this dark Yugi, it's a bit like challenging Death to a game of chess, with impossible stakes and unsavory outcomes.

This early Yu-Gi-Oh! is much more of a horror series than what it would become later in its serialization.

The anime series that is most popular in the Western world is not the only Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Before NAS and Studio Gallop had their go at making one of the most popular shonen anime of the 2000s, Toei Animation produced what has come to be known by some fans as "Season Zero." This late-'90s attempt has never had an official English-language release, unfortunately, but even Western fans are aware of how it differs from what the majority of us know as Yu-Gi-Oh!

Season Zero hews more closely to the manga's original story, exploring those dark themes of vigilante justice meted out by a cruel and savvy games master. It also sticks more closely to Takahashi's original art style, which in the early days was distinguished by his characters' cuter, more rounded features. Since licensors have gone this long without attempting to bring this anime stateside, we don't think it's likely to ever find its way into the North American market. Still, it's a nifty piece of the history of the series and its many iterations.

In the early manga and the original 1998 anime adaptation, there is a brief story about a character with a penchant for American superheroes. Hanasaki, a classmate of Yugi's is obsessed with the American superhero comic "Zombire." Keep watching the video to see the untold truth of Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Dark manga origins | 0:12
Season Zero | 1:41
Kazuki Takahashi and Western comics | 2:41
Lost in translation | 3:30
Spirits of the Puzzle and the Ring | 5:06
Spinoffs extraordinaire | 6:27
Roll to save the universe | 7:46
It doesn't pay to double-deal | 8:49
Banned cards | 9:50
Dueling in the tech era | 10:53

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