Yu☆Gi☆Oh! Duel Monsters GX

After watching the whole series in just two weeks or so, I will tell you how I felt about this series. I watched the orignal Japanese version, not the English dubbed version (although I've watched some on TV).

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is a sequel of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series as most would know. The game of Duel Monsters has gotten so popular that there are pro leagues as well as specialized schools to mainly train and teach students to become great duelists. It's an interesting setting and did intrigue me.

The story follows after a young boy named Yuki Judai, who just starts to attend an elite Duel ... Monsters school called, "Duel Academia" The school is divided in three different classes, "Obelisk Blue", "Ra Yellow" and "Osiris Red" (the names should sound familiar for those who watched the original series). It is basically dividing students into their skill levels, Osiris Red being the lowest class, Ra Yellow in the middle and the Obelisk Blue, consisting of the school's best duelists.

The series starts off with a lighter tone, just following Judai and his life in school as he makes new friends. But as the story progresses, it does get deeper and more complex. I felt that there were quite a few story elements that seemed forced and didn't make sense, but it was watchable overall. Much like the original series, there's heavy emphasis on friendship. One thing that does get a little annoying is that duelists read their card effects every time they play it and it kind of gets tiresome, but I guess they can't help it since there will always be people who aren't familiar with the cards and their effects.

I wasn't super impressed with most of OP and ED songs, but soundtracks were quite good, although I would have liked a little more variety of music during duels. It's like when you hear a certain music starts to play, you know that our hero's pulling off an awesome combo to finish the duel!

Art wise, I felt that GX got a slight down grade from the original series. Not a big difference, but I never thought that GX had better animation or art quality. Not the worst, but not too impressive on most parts. However, I never expected it to be amazing since it is a 180 episode series afterall.

There are quite a bit of characters in GX and I felt that there were perhaps a little too many. Character developments are there, as it would be crazy to have a 180 episode series without character growths. Some character developments being more natural and subtle than others. The series inserts new characters here and there to keep it interesting, but it felt a bit crowded later on.

I mainly watched this because I play the card game myself. It will be much more enjoyable if you play the game. It does gets kind of repetitive, but that could be because I was having a marathon (almost). The TV series is very different from the manga, so give it a read! I personally like the overall feel of the manga more, because the manga has more mature feel to it.

Basically, this series is worth a watch for someone who:
- plays, or is interested in the card game
- wants to kill some time
- is looking for something to watch with his/her kid

In conclusion, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was a decent series, but it was never at the level of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

I'm not sure exactly why so many see GX as the weakest of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime series, as I thoroughly enjoyed it, and continue to do so no matter how many times I watch it. GX has a strong cast of characters with terrific voice actors, excellent back-ground music, and an interesting setting and storyline. I'll admit that the storyline is a bit shakey at times and contains gaps, but that is also true of the other Yu-Gi-Oh series. In my opinion, GX contains far more comprehensive character development than the other Yu-Gi-Oh series. It has been critised for focusing too much on the main ... protagonist, Judai, but I also think this is true of the other Yu-Gi-Oh series, especially 5D's. I recommend watching GX for people who are out to enjoy anime. If the viewer is overly critical, and watches GX for the sake of finding flaws, they will find plenty. But if you watch GX with the objective of being entertained, I don't think you will be disappointed. GX is a fast-paced series with an energetic protagonist and wonderful supporting cast, and if you like to look deeply into a series, you will find plenty of absolutely fascinating stuff lurking in GX. Watch this series with a wide open mind.

It's best to note that while the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime is not the worst anime in existence, it is far from the best. This series puts a couple of blemishes on the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise; in fact, when compared with the manga, it earns the same reaction you'll find from avid Tsukihime fans: "What anime?"

The premise of a dueling academy makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that Yu-Gi-Oh! is about a children's card game. While the importance of a children's card game seems exaggerated in the viewers' eyes, you have to remember that in this animeverse, it -isn't-. Duel Monsters is the ... most popular--and clearly the most influential--sport of the world. Plus, when you realize the Academia still has the required graduation classes (though you won't see them too much on-screen), you realize that the school is a typical high school--just one with a very specialized "Ivy Leage" program.

Still, while the premise doesn't have flaws, the way it was carried out does. The first half of season one made GX seem like a slice-of-life anime, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if the plot was at least consistent rather than having these separated one-shots. Then when GX actually started having substantial plots, it seemed like another series taking itself too seriously. A white hole in space sending proxies to bring about destruction? A deranged hermaphrodite demon seeking her lover? A force of darkness wishing to unify all existence in nothingness? Sorry NAS, not buying it. What probably made these plots worse was that they were arranged in a "What enemy will I face this school year?" fashion.

The art was average. It didn't thrill me, but it didn't disgust me either. No more to say on that. Now as for music, that was actually GX's best asset. The OPs and EDs weren't the best, but the OST soundtracks were. They did their job of accenting the situations quite smoothly. If an upbeat song came on, the situation was happy or comical. If a slow and sad song came on, the situation was depressing or dark. And if that one song that raised your spirits came on, you knew the protagonist of the duel was making his comeback.

NAS dropped the ball with its characters. Too many characters introduced at a time with too little development reserved for each one. Judai, the main character, was a Gary Stu that didn't get a background story until season three. The background wasn't even good either, turning out to be a contrived DM reincarnation rip-off with pathetically shallow "I need to grow up" development in season four that made him nothing more than an ass. And the other protagonists only got their little development in season one, and were shafted in season three with the appearance of the Academia champions.

Still, I found myself enjoying the series while watching it. Much of the bashing GX gets is in hindsight, when the fans start looking back and realize the flaws they overlooked when they first watched it. In the end, the GX anime turned out to be run by a group of people who had no idea what direction they wanted to take the show in; they would rather insert any random and unnecessary bit of occult history and symbolism if it made viewers think they were actually putting any thought into the series. (And let me tell you, GX is riddled with occult stuff if you know how and where to find it.)

I suggest that rather than watching this anime you read Kazuki Takahashi and Naoyuki Kageyama's manga adaptation.

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!: Duel Monsters GX is oftenly known as the weakest Yu☆Gi☆Oh! series aside from Zexal, which in my honest opinion is under rating it a lot. The show may have it's flaws but it's actually an outstanding experience for anyone who looks for long running shows with great characters, funny interactions between them and entertaining story since it begins until it ends.

The show features a lot of one shot episodes and characters thrown in the "filler" category, which is the first point in trashtalking the show. When the story begins it takes a bit long to get into the first arc so the first 30 ... or so episodes are the ones that introduce you to the show's premise and characters that stay for the longest, which I found alright since they take all of it's time to be properly introduced in a completely non-boring way. Aside from them, there are a bunch of one shot characters that stand in the bad side for silly yet entertaining reasons that never try to hard to be serious but still is pretty fun to watch. It's an original anime so the fillers will still be considered originals and skipping them will just take out from the experience the enjoyment they give. Even the one shot characters are likeable with many ways they have to express themselves, so no one feels the same as the last one as it goes on. They even come back in a later second season episode which actually give them the credit they deserve and it's a nice touch from the staff to not forget about them.

Speaking of characters, during the show each one of the main bunch have their own proper development and mini arcs too, so they are not there just to support the main character (as it was in the original Duel Monsters series) but to acomplish their own goals and make a better experience out of it and in the end you'll just can't help but feel happy for how everything went for them (and miss them like I do...).

The second main criticism the series get is regarding the first two main arcs of the story. While it's certainly true that the plot gets impactful and more interesting the last two arcs where "shit hits the fan". The first half tries something completely different as it goes in a light-hearted (with serious moments) slice of life perspective (in a school where people learn to play card games to do something with their lives related to card games, as silly as it sounds it's pretty cool). It takes it's time to build up the world it presents and success because coming back to the point of the characters and their interactions it will always feel fresh and fun to watch.
I consider a mistake to watch GX skipping the first half just because the second half is more serious, if it's done like that anyone who starts from season 3 onwards won't feel empathy for the characters, which are the show's strongest point in the experience of the story, so from the get go if you don't like them this animation is not for you and most importantly you will for sure miss a lot of crazy shit during seaons 1 and 2 that'll make you think the writers were in drugs during production.

The actual plot though it's not perfect since at some point it foreshadows a lot of stuff that is never explained or brought back again later on, leaving a lot to think about without any answers, but looking for the silliest or serious outcomes will actually feel good.

Production values-wise is the most solid of all the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, the designs for characters, monsters, environment and even duel disks are pretty interesting and the animation lacks mistakes in it (QUALITY). The soundtrack is also likeable since every background music fits perfectly the moment they play, the voice acting and dialogues in the japanese version is also excellent since every character feels natural with their voice actors representing them.

Regarding the duels, well, it's Yu-Gi-Oh! so it's a standard so liking and understanding the card game is the first step to like or dislike GX.

Opening and Ending songs are also good. In my opinion openings 3 and ending 4 are the best.

Overall it really is an enjoyable experience and it's a shame that we will probably never see something GX related again (;_;)

So if you like Yu-Gi-Oh! and card games animeys to begin with give GX a shot, it might feel like a hit or miss but if it hits you, you'll feel an eternal void inside of you the moment you see the last minutes of the show and try to move on by watching something else (the cycle of anime).

Well, what's to say about Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? Well nothing much really. Basically they just added a new theme to Yu-Gi-Oh! that doesn't seem so good. When I first thought of the sequal of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series, I thought that this one had to be good, but yet I was wrong. On the other hand there are a few good things about this show. Many of the cards that Yu-Gi-Oh! players loved appear in the show more often and shows a different approach toward Duel Monsters. Usually we thought that the theme of the Cards were Egyptian Monsters and what not, but in GX they change ... it to modern day Monster themes. Many of the Characters have pretty well rounded themes, and it's nice to see what they'll draw next.

Basically they began where the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was near its ending. While Yuugi and friends were facing off the dangerous Yami Bakura in one last game, this Duel Academy was getting praise from around the world. Duel Academy not just teaches kids to become better duelists, but also better Buisness men. Then appears Jaden Yuki, a kid that has one thing on his mind, becoming the next "King Of Games". He's not the only one though. Once he joins Duel Academy he faces several opponents, some stronger then most. But does Jaden have what it takes to become "King Of Games"?

Some advice to you about this series, don't watch the 4Kids TV version! If you know how bad 4Kids TV ruins many other good animes (ex: One Peice, Tokyo Mew Mew, etc), then you best know how bad it turns out. Try going on Youtube or some anime fourm where they show the anime in Japanese. You'll see that the characters are more serious then the ones 4Kids turned them into. Besides, we all know that Japanese anime is better then dubbed American versions, right? So take my advice and be more open minded about animes. Once again so it's refreshed in your heads.....4KIDS TV IS BAD!!! Thank you.

I have a little confession: Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Monsters GX wasn't that bad, BUT wasn't that good.
Okay, let's begin:

10 years have passed after we broke up from our beloved Yugi, Atem and their friends, here comes a new story about Judai, a dueling dreamer, who is going to a duel academy to learn how to be the best dueler all over the world. Without to notice, Judai meets Yugi on his way to school, when Yugi gives him a luck card: The Winged Kuriboh (Judai calls him at the beginning 'Partner' and after that, the real name). Since then, Judai comes to school and the ... adventures begin.
Until here everything is good and pretty. But the 2 first seasons were unnecessary to me. Why? Because they were such as fillers and boring. The improvement is seen in the 3rd season, when there are good episodes and good new characters (Johan of course ^__^). One more surprising thing is the 4th season, that actually is the main portion, during the previous seasons are the appetizers.
But what's the matter? Also on the original Yu-Gi-Oh there was an improvement, But it was since 2nd season. There is a different.

Art was very great and very good, such as any anime I love. Quality? Excellent (Although the dub version has a bad quality LOL)

Sound? Very good. I am also buzzing the soundtrack any single moment(The dub version sounds like a drag-show). The japanese voices very great and the songs also.

Characters? Very great. Judai is so cute, and when he grew up, he was very valued (That's why am I calling him:'Pet-Yugi' XD). Sho sounds twetty, but he was cute. Manjoume? My favourite. Asuka? Very good character. Chronos? was annoying a little. But still, There were many good characters to me. Any character that was a villain at the beginning, has changed to good (Remember Kaiba, Pegasus and Malik?), but in any anime is like that, no?

Enjoyment? I told when I reviewed on the story, but I can tell that I stayed because of many great characters, such as Manjoume, Edo, Fubuki and Ryo (My faves+Johan and Jim from 3rd season and up) and that's why I love the 3rd and the 4th seasons of the anime.

And overall? If you look for bishies (And shipping xD) and you are a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters is the perfect anime for you!




[*NOTE: I related for the original version, not for the foolish dub version]

The tightrope between absurdity and existentialism. The setting is not what it appears to be.

The series has remained fascinating to me for many years, despite its status as a tie-in to a trading card game. The expectations going in are low, but the show dazzled me as a younger man for its surprising depth of character writing and the journey of the characters. GX is absurd, but also unafraid to go to dark places. It's about growing up, the meaning of games, the pain of adolescence, and the Jungian shadow.

Judai is at first an annoying main character. Blithe, casually arrogant, undisciplined. But there is also ... an innocence to him that is in equal measure endearing and disturbing. There is something "off" about him, and as we learn more of his past in the later seasons, it all starts to make sense. His character is a microcosm for the series as a whole - boyish playfulness and youthful exuberance masking inner darkness, shadows bubbling madly beneath the surface. Minute by minute, the youthful ideals are stripped away and the child is thrust into adulthood.

The side characters suffer from the problem most shonen side characters do - lack of plot important battles and victories. But what they lack in those they make up for with strong character arcs. Manjoume is a great twist on the usual "shonen rival" archetype, Shou is a similarly unique take on the "insecure shy best friend" cliche, Ryo and the "aloof big brother". All of them deconstruct the usual templates. The character writing is pound for pound superior to Yugioh Duel Monsters, and that is a FACT.

The technical aspects of the show are fine. The animation is generally good, with peaks and valleys seen in all long running series. Japanese soundtrack is decent, Sad Duel is a great track. The openings and endings are very good, except for the first OP and ED, which are booty in my opinion. 99% is both melancholy and hopeful, Precious Time Glory Days is a rousing anthem.

The dub is hilarious, and cheesy enough to capture the more absurd elements of the show. It surpasses cringe and leaps headlong into meme territory. It fails utterly at the serious moments though, and the sub is overall the superior product by leaps and bounds.

This series stands apart from Yugioh Duel Monsters, there is a serious argument to be made for it being better. Those who call it a knockoff are ignorant and fail (or refuse to) see the series' merits. The depth is there - choose to see it! I will defend this series any day any time.

Yugioh GX is a strange and confounding show. It has one of, if not the best casts in the Yugioh franchise, but it heavily underitilizes or derails most of them. It has perhaps the most likable, fleshed out, and developed protagonist in the franchise but at the cost of a lot of characters the show doesn’t know what to do with. It has some of the most conceptually interesting and narratively sound arcs in all of Yugioh, but one of them is rushed while the other has an ending that almost killed its season outright. GX has a lot of potential that finds itself capitalized ... on brilliantly at times, but the show is just an inconsistent mess.

That being said, this is easily the best Yugioh anime, at least in context of the original timeline. Unlike Duel Monsters, GX doesn’t treat you like a moron while padding itself out to oblivion with characters whose existences become increasingly confounding as the show’s nonexistent sense of logic somehow takes a nosedive for the sake of establishing threats for the main protagonist to beat over. Unlike 5D’s, it wasn’t the subject of a complete shift in focus, causing the entire show to devolve into a jumbled mess of bastardized characters, intentional as well as accidental retcons, and nonsensical plot-points. In spite of all of this, GX has generally been seen as inferior to both. In fact, prior to Zexal’s miserable first season and all other Yugioh series that followed, GX was seen as the black sheep of the franchise. Even after Zexal II supposedly redeemed its series and the later entries found their reputations dwindling sometime after coming out, GX has always lived in the shadow of Duel Monsters and 5D’s. Why? Outside of the initially dismal reaction to the fun cheese dub which has gained a lot of fondness in the 2010s, it’s still puzzling as to why GX is looked at as the middling step-child in the original trilogy. While getting a definitive answer may be impossible, asserting the notion that GX is perhaps the best series in a lackluster franchise by virtue of being semi-decent is something at least someone might find worth doing as we examine some of the highs and lows of this strange, erratic entry.

The first thing to dive into is the cast, which is both GX’s greatest strength and biggest weakness. Main character Judai, as well as other characters such as Manjoume and Chronos are incredibly likable and well-developed characters. That’s actually kind of the problem, though. They are pretty much the only characters that get used well on a remotely consistent basis outside of some of the ones introduced in season 3. In terms of the major characters introduced in the first half of the series, most of them find themselves largely relegated to the sidelines, or get absolutely derailed after the first season.

A great example of the former is Asuka, who largely loses relevance in the series after her season 1 plot of trying to find her brother. She’s certainly a formidable duelist, and she even has a few instrumental wins in the first season, but by the second half of the show, she barely gets to duel anymore and only has a couple of single-episode arcs and showings. It’s telling that her only bearing on the main plots of seasons 3 and 4 amount to her essentially being assimilated around the halfway mark of those two respective seasons after dueling once...each. As for an example of the latter without touching on the broken mess of spoilers that is Kaiser, we have Daichi Misawa. Good lord in Heaven, what happened to one of the strongest characters and friendliest rivals of season 1? After being one of the few decent duelists in the first half of season one, they decided to play more into his “science” gimmick while making him a joke for the rest of the first and second seasons, culminating in his only significant on-screen duels amounting to losses and questionable forfeits as he randomly becomes insecure about being seen as weak. By season 3, he isn’t even dueling anymore, though the once friendly rival to Judai at least has his own interesting plot revolving one of the antagonists from season 1 who beat him.

There are several other characters that suffer from these bad writing decisions. Judai’s sidekick of sorts, Shou, goes from a wimpy loser struggling to prove himself in the first season to a whiny coward who picks on freshmen just because season 2 decided to be the worst. The season 2 mainstays, Edo and Tyranno, have miserable introductory seasons, as the former has an annoying revenge plot, and the latter’s on again off again bickering with Shou over who gets to be Judai’s sidepiece is perhaps the most insufferable character dynamic in the franchise. However, a lot of these characters either barely matter in the latter half anyway, or become genuinely endearing once they find their own new personality traits, character dynamics, and big moments such as Tyranno nuking an entire wave of zombie students with a meteor attack just so his friends can reach season 3’s main antagonist.

That’s the thing about GX. Whenever it knows how to develop a character well, it can produce some of the best characters in the franchise. Judai’s development is the best of any character in the series, as his fears over losing his friends to some of the more supernatural and dangerous aspects of dueling are weaponized in later seasons to great effect. He’s already a likable character at the start, with how his jovial, laid-back attitude eventually contrasts with his greatest fears. However, seeing how far the series goes to both break and reshape him while a bit flawed in some cases, is absolutely harrowing. They’re the main draw of seasons 3 and 4, as the darker tone of the series takes hold and legitimately sympathetic or at least interesting antagonists bring out the worst of Judai before he and his friends can overcome it. The show actually conveyed the messages of not giving into your greatest fears in life quite well, as those who do either give up on life, or become a more desperate, depressed, and inconsiderate version of themselves whose actions and failures haunt them at every turn.

On a less cerebral note, there’s still Manjoume and Chronos. Out of the major side characters established since the beginning, they’re the only two who don’t get derailed or underutilized. Manjoume’s eventual development from the most abrasive elitist to a somehow more AND less egotistical powerhouse clown is honestly astonishing. While they perhaps could have done a bit more with him in later seasons, the dichotomy between his egotistical and borderline tsundere clown side growing simultaneously while sandpapering his more abrasive edges is a treat. He steals the show almost every time he’s on screen throughout his entire journey. As for Chronos, him learning to be less of an elitist professor who hates all of the students on the lower rung is equally compelling. Watching him slowly go from constantly trying to expel Judai to putting his line and career on the line for his students multiple times, makes for some of the most impactful scenes of each season. His final duel with Judai makes for the best, most compelling duel in the entire series as Chronos’ arc comes to a heartwarming close. There are other entertaining characters with their own arcs and gimmicks, such as Austin O’Brien’s militant and crafty nature leading to a compelling mini-arc and some of the third season’s funniest moments, and Jim Cook’s devotion to friendship being so powerful that he legitimately has a mystical item related to it and an alligator as his partner. However, we’ll be here all day if we go over every aspect of GX’s strangely inconsistent character writing.

A cast of characters makes up the bulk of a series’ heart and soul, but the story that drives them along is similarly important...and often weak in this case The first half of the first arc is largely devoted to hilariously absurd, albeit inconsistent episodic plots, as well as a few minor character arcs. This is where a lot of the show’s charm is found, as the characters interact with the strange setting of their duel academy with hijinks ensuing. Chazz’s gloriously bizarre conquest in preparation for the mid-season finale is the best part of the first 26 episodes. The second half of that season is a rather weak “stop several bad guys from doing bad things for immortality and world domination” plot. The only interesting aspect of the arc is how Judai starts fearing the weight of the consequences that comes from losing whenever things get serious, and therefore has to learn to overcome that. There are contrivances and several odd filler episodes interpursed with the somewhat more serious arc, which makes the narrative of S1 even weaker. At least, the show goes through a beautiful transition period in the last few episodes of the season to send off some of its side characters.

The second season/arc is even more drawn-out, as the first half largely has sequences of Judai bumbling through a forest, two of his classmates bickering back and forth on who gets to be his side-piece, and several filler duel episodes of inconsistent quality. The idea of someone slowly brainwashing the students is somewhat neat, as is the idea that Edo is looking for his father’s killer. It’s just that the former is dragged out for too long, and the latter isn’t really fleshed out or interesting here. The absurd nature of how Chazz launches a counter campaign later on and how Judai and his friends combat a deadly satellite are the only things of interest this time around beyond how some of the eclectic characters from the first season’s more bonkers slice-of-life half wreck shop here as Chronos, who tried to end Judai’s education in S1, gets multiple opportunities to stick his neck out for his students and occupation.

The later seasons take on far darker storylines meant to utterly break Judai so that S4 can restore him into a more mature version of his old self. The execution of these ideas is a bit inconsistent, relying on breaking the rules of the game to defeat certain antagonists or just flat-out using lore to absolve the third season’s main antagonist of all of their atrocities because apparently it’s Judai’s fault anyway. However, some of the previously derailed or lackluster characters get significantly better portrayals with character-defining scenes, and the new cast members get their own fun arcs. Additionally, things such as Judai’s temporary downfall after throwing his friends’ lives in danger just to rescue a new person close to him, and some of the apparent character deaths are standout moments of the series. Season 4 would then expand upon these ideas with the darkness consuming all into collective consciousness plotline and how his depression and guilt over both what he put his friends through in S3 and everything that has ever transpired over the 3 years they’ve been at the duel academy. It does take a while to get there, as the show has to retroactively ruin one of the best deaths in the franchise. Despite that and how some rather important characters that would make perfect sense to feature more frequently are largely absent, this is still the best season for what it does with Judai and how thematically resonant and emotionally impactful it is. The middle episodes have some of the most resonant duels and storylines in the series with Manjoume and Chronos’s final moments of relevance.This is sadly where all relevance for most characters not named Judai come to an end, but at least some of them go out on a high note before getting sucked into the final plot of the show. The way it’s presented with the evil light from S2 being defeated and now S4 evil, uncaring darkness taking over so it can also be defeated is hokey, but there’s a lot that gets said here.

The latter half of Season 4 becomes one of the best “human instrumentality” storylines for how it showcases what it’s like for the characters trapped in misery and the collective consciousness as they’re pressured into giving in, letting their lives go once and for all as they escape into the temporal abyss to end their cycle of failure and misery. It’s allegorical suicide, and only the most damaged person is left to fight it off as he weighs off his guilt and depression thanks to his friends’s attempts to reinvigorate his passion, as well as the responsibility he knows he has to those he cares about. This is the perfect capstone to Judai’s arc, and why in spite of the somewhat iffy and inconsistent execution that makes it hard to appreciate in the moment, the plotline is perhaps the richest of the series. It’s what allows the finale to truly feel earned and impactful.

The final aspects to mention are the show’s audiovisuals. Much like Duel Monsters, the music in GX is great, albeit often overplayed in the first two seasons. Yutaka Minobe became the composer for the franchise from GX to Zexal. While this OST doesn’t have the grandiosity or sheer emotional weight of a lot of the Duel Monsters tracks done by Utena composer Shinkichi Mitsume, there are still plenty of energetic, chill, and beautiful tracks to choose from. Majoume’s theme is a somewhat mysterious yet somewhat lax piece, Fierce Attack goes harder than perhaps any track from the show, and Duelist is a personal favorite for how perfectly it encompasses the bittersweet nature of season 4. Other great tracks include Wicked Grudge, Sad Duel/Supreme King theme, Judai’s theme, and Beyond the Sorrow. Judai and Supreme King’s themes in particular are perhaps the most iconic pieces in the entire show as the former is a satisfying yet laid-back piece that’s sure to incite a mix of hype and a willingness to groove, while the latter is as fierce and downtrodden as Jaden grew to be in the third quarter of S3. The later seasons did get a ton of newer, often darker tracks more befitting of the grimmer tone, which is part of why the OST did not feel as repetitive in the show’s latter half. It’s a good thing, too, as several of these tracks are outstanding.

The lineup of OPs and EDs is perhaps the most consistent in the franchise, with the only real dud being the first OP. Personal favorites include “Teardrop” by BOWL, “Precious Time, Glory Days” by Psychic Lover, and “Endless Dream” by Hiroshi Kitadani (OP 3, OP 4, ED 4). “Teardrop” is a beautifully somber song that speaks about opening up and letting out one’s sorrows from the perspective of someone they saved and therefore are devoted to, and seem to be directed at Jaden as he goes through primarily negative development in that season. “Precious Time, Glory Days” is a lot more hopeful and energetic, aware of the sorrows that took place but still being a fun and optimistic song in spite of everything just as Jaden grew to be by the end of S4. “Endless Dream” is a beautiful and somewhat bittersweet piece that opens up with a serene sequence as Jaden sleeps on a field of grass in broad daylight. It truly conveys the bittersweet nature of the final season as everyone moves on and gives it one last go with smiles on their faces.

Lastly, the visuals are...about as mediocre as you’d expect from a Yugioh series. The franchise was never one to be sought after for sakuga or anything compared to most long-running shounen anime. This could mean that the series would focus more on detailed artwork and generally decent presentation. However, that’s not exactly the case, either. Studio Gallop returned to work on this show, and there are a few minor improvements as well as unique issues. Starting with the positives, there do seem to be more moments compared to Duel Monsters where important summons or attacks result in explosive sakuga cuts. The artwork is more consistently on-model than Duel Monsters, though oddities do still pop up here and there. While the characters are more consistently on model, there are still moments where they look particularly awkward from lower angles. The character and monster designs are often more pleasant as well, at least until the later seasons decided edgy BDSM-esque designs were the new “hip thing” for a lot of antagonist decks and boss monsters. The characters also get to have more visual interactions with the game, as field spells crumble around and affect them, and monsters get a bit more dynamic with their engagements. The early seasons in particular often look worse when characters aren’t dueling, as there are moments where character models very blatantly and awkwardly bounce around, snap, or hover from one part of the screen to the next as a substitute for animating any actual flight or walking. Any CG is thankfully limited to the occasional ugly game effect and a couple of episodes that use ugly water effects, compared to DM’s occasional grotesque CGI background. This would change forever once 5D’s rolled in, so it’s good to appreciate what’s here in Duel Monsters and GX before the franchise became CGI hell. Still, it’s hard not to say that the series fares a little better than Duel Monsters, which notoriously went through some rough patches in certain filler arcs. Both are largely still slideshows, though.

It’s sad that the best of the original YGO trilogy is a depressingly inconsistent mess. There is a lot to like about GX, such as its cast of characters, the bizarre yet lax nature of the early episodes, and the stories the later seasons told. It has perhaps the most well-written and defined protagonist in the franchise, and tells a rather important message via one of the only decent post-Eva “collective consciousness/human instrumentality” plots. However, the show largely sidelines or derails most of its otherwise stellar cast, and a lot of ideas are fumbled in the most critical moments, like the insultingly awful conclusion to season 3. For everything fascinating or great about the show, something stupid counterbalances.

Yugioh GX isn't not the easiest thing to recommend, but if you want a decent nostalgia trip, feel free to watch some of season 1 in dub form and switch to sub at your leisure until it becomes the only way to properly appreciate S3 or even watch S4. Your mileage will certainly vary with the first two seasons, but if you make it to the end, you might get a lot more out of it, emotionally and thematically, than you’d expect.

Perhaps the only case of anime where the dub actually did a better job than the original, and we're talking 4kids here.

Set approximately 10 years after the original ended, we meet Jaden, a student who enrolls in the famous Duel Academy, that trains people to becomes pros. Since it's a yugioh anime that's not Arc V (or 5ds) you can already guess that there isn't much in terms of character development, backstory etc etc. Jaden is nothing short of a hyperactive cheerful clown who has the occasional kinda-badass moments, and then we have the background cast of Alexis, Bastian, Chazz, Cyrus and a few others, ... though you will only remember Chazz since he's in almost as many episodes as Jaden (they're rivals... kindof... Usually it's Chazz making a fool of himself and then dueling Jaden for insertstreetfighterlogichere). The villains will settle for nothing less than world domination (minus the 3rd arc villain who... Lets not spoil it, she is pretty unique though), and will stop at nothing to destroy their opponents... That is to say minus the rules of a duel that more ofter than not they have no reason to play. But this is yugioh, all conflict is solved with card games.

Now for the duels themselves, definitely an improvement from the original. Pretty much everyone uses fusions, or otherwise will end up using fusions. The only exceptions are the occasional one-episode villain using a lockdown burn deck, and the final bosses of each arc. The duels are from start to finish intents, starting the long tradition of the yugioh anime (&game) of changing who has the upper hand per turn. Obviously this manages to keeps the tensions up and give you quite a spectacle. And this is where the highlight of the dub comes in, for once 4Kids puns&insults are not AS horrible as you would expect. Surely there are a lot of retarded lines along the way, but certain catchprases like "Game On" will definitely make an impression to you. Another thing that 4kids did right was replace the (mediocre at best) original soundtrack with various techno themes that REALLY get you going (seriously, kudos for that). The voice acting isn't half bad either, with various characters other than Jaden managing to make an impression, especially when it comes to villains. Satorius (the second season's villain) especially had some amazing voice acting done for his part, which is also the reason the second season (Light of Destruction) is bound to be your favourite of the four.

Honestly there is not much to say about GX, I suggest watching the dub as far as it goes, for the awesome music (and kinda barable puns) if not for nothing else, and then continuing to the final season with the original, since 4kids decided not to dub it due to overly diabolical themes (despite the series actually going well in terms of viewers). Game on!

This isn't a perfect series, it has it's ups and downs, the first season suffers a lot from introducing a lot of characters and no real over all plot, though that improves in the second and third season.

What the show does have that I love is some really nice themes, and doesn't seem to suffer from 1 card syndrome like other yugioh's I've watched, where the main char only ever uses the same card every fight to win. His deck is varied with enough surprises and new editions, along with everyone else.

What I do like is how every characters deck has it's own theme ... and feel to it that progresses for the most part as the series goes on. We see a evolution in most of the characters deck's and themselves.

I really enjoyed this one over all, recently having watched the third season I had skipped before, and found it enjoyable, despite being darker then previous stuff.

I would suggest checking it out if you love the card game, or just like the anime in general, I originally was concerned about the theme of a school wasn't sure if there would be enough there, but while the first season like I said had some of that issue, it got better over all, and still enjoyed the first season.

This is my first time righting a review for an anime, but I will explain this as thoroughly as possible. I watched this in Sub because 4 Kids did a terrible job.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX follows a time period after that of the original Yugioh and we follow Yuki Judai, who is on his way to an elite school for duelists "Duel Academia" , as he progresses his success often grabs the attention others negatively, much like the original series with Yugi and Kaiba. If you watch the beginning your going to ... feel like this show is one of those normal high-school settings just with the addition of dueling, however as you progress things become much more intense. The first two seasons in a way are created for Judai to develop himself and for that reason they are the worst seasons of the series.

Once you get to season 3 that's when the true enjoyment starts to kick in. This is the period of time where Judai has to use everything he learned from his time to solve situations that are extremely difficult for him. Not only does the intensity grow but he starts to make decisions that can cause grief and sadness to those around him. If you are looking at this series and thinking should I watch it or not, here is my recommendation to you, if you want to go through the complete character development and all the experiences he has watch it from the beginning.

If you want to get right into the juicy part of this start watching at the start of the 3rd season which I believe starts at episode 105. The reason I believe this is fine is because major characters of the story come into play right into this episode and the plot starts to pick up from the slow pacing that was occuring before that.

The soundtracks for GX were good but nothing too special, the best opening imo being the third one. However the sound matches in the setting always in a good way to give the viewer the idea of what is about to occur.

Overall, GX was the deepest and most enjoying of the Yugioh series, the reason being the hardships that Judai had to go through, and how he overcame his situation. Also his emotions and the way he reacted when things did not go his way becomes a very enjoyable thing to watch. I would highly recommend this anime to anyone who is a fan of duel monsters and rate it the highest out of any of the series over the original as well.

Please note before you read this, the scores i gave it were all 10's. I'll explain in detail shortly


Yu-Gi-Oh!, as we all know it , is a super successful card game show, and downright franchise. Most of the content that spill's out of its universe, is made purely, for cash. The original series people will argue, is the same. And they are right, but here's how I look at it. So fucking what? As a child, me and the kids my age were absorbed into this show and its card game. I was about maybe around 9 when GX came out, and as a kid ... I could not see the huge flaws that make up this show. We loved it so much, all these franchises, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon. Hell, maybe even some Digimon. These things, make up what I liked to do as a kid with friends and alone. And at the age of 16, I am secure enough to say I fucking love this show. Not that i would watch it or play the card game, Hell no I'm no fucking loser, but i love the memories and I still have a tremendous respect for this show.


It's all horrible, or it's all good. Does not matter. The story is shit. We have no development and all their is for characters are Archtypes. But that's OK. The dissection is redundant at this point! It was more about the cards then the actual show. But still this show had our tiny brains absorbed into this spikey haired, over the top, repetitive show! But at least it was consistent! If i had to pick most show's that game out now, or this, THIS in a fucking heartbeat. No not Angel Beats, Shoo weeaboo.


We basically got our dumb protagonist Jayden, who only losses when it suits the plot accordingly, our evil pedophile DR who wants to take him down, A stuck up rival who has a Ojama complex, a chick who does not want to show us her titties, a pussy for a best friend, Fat albert if he was a white Koala, and a strain of side characters that have more meaning than some.


This show sounds like shit! But when we were kid's we could let that all go and take it simply for what it was. Any review criticizing this show for its countless flaws is redundant. The only thing that matters to rate this show, No, this universe, is how it affected YOU. Fuck character and art and sound (Get your game on) YOU are what this show is about. Now take all your cards from you closet, or if you sold them remember the times, and just take a gander at yourself. This to people who grew up with any franchise, That IS YOU. Take it or leave it.

I don't get why everyone says Yugioh GX sucks so much, I prefer it more than the other three. Probably because of the dub. But this series was amazing and heart-felt and I don't regret watching it.

Okay, first off the story. The first season is what drew me to the series because of the light-hearted themes in it. At one point, things kinda got serious but nonetheless it still had its comic relief. The story was kind of scattered though. It wasn't until around later did it finally get into it's actual plot, not that I had a problem with. The second season was the ... same thing but with a different plot. The third season started off light hearted but then later on we see a much more meaningful plot that leads on into season four. I loved that. Not even the duels turned me off. In fact, it had me on the edge of my seat. And I'm a girl. :P

The art was really nice. But at some points they didn't color it right. Like for example, they had once colored Judai/Jaden's eyes grey and they forgot to shade in the orange-brownish patch at the top of his head. Anyways, the art was really well done and not lazy at all.

The Soundtrack was really good but I prefer the yugioh. The music really matched the scene that was playing and it really added to the mood. Also I fell in love with the season two ending - Wake Up Your Heart by KENN (Judai's voice actor) and the season three opening - Teardrop by BOWL.

Another thing I really like about this series is the characters, especially Judai. The other protagonists for the other yugioh series (not sure about Yuma) have a sort of win-or-die attitude and have been slapped or punched for being so...ahem..."EMOtional"(once again not sure about Yuma). But not Judai. Well, before season four but still. Judai would probably get slapped for being so naïve or stupid. He had a happy-go-lucky air around him that draws people to him like moths to a light. Even when he lost, he still had his happy air. However, at the start of season four, Judai had undergone a major character change, which in other words he matured with a twist. And I also love his "twin" Johan/Jesse. I wished he came in around season one so he could get more screen time and character development.

I really enjoyed watching this series and re-watching my favorite moments over and over. I recommend this show to those who like Yugioh and school-based animes. Even if you dont, still just watch it, you wont regret it. Forget what everyone else is saying about how this show sucks.

Overall, I give this show a 10. As I said before, you will not regret watching this show and the duels are just as amazing. But if you want the full enjoyment of this show, watch the japanese version like I did.

Following up the original yugioh series, we have yugioh GX. Now if you are looking for something to top the original, this is sadly not it. While pretty fun to watch the story lacks a lot from the original yugioh which has a pretty deep story, GX offers a more childish and fun story to watch.

Story 5/10: Jaden goes to a dueling school and just goes threw seperate arcs. It is a simple story and not very in depth. Fun to watch, nothing more.

Art 7/10: The art in yugioh GX is average, the monsters look alright but some are made childish, too childish and ... annoying.

Sound 9/10: Music is very catchy, game on get your game on!

Character 7/10: Most of the characters develop throughout the anime and there are some hilarious characters in the pack, although also some annoying ones. Kid show, variety isn't massive.

Enjoyment 9/10: It's a very fun series to watch but nothing that will change your life.

Overall 6/10: Watch it for fun if you're bored but don't expect much. I recommend watching original yugioh instead its better or the abridged series, even better than that.

If you were a big fan of the first series of Yu-Gi-Oh!, you probably hopped on the wagon to view the next series hoping for another mind-blowing TV show about how a child's card came could affect the fate of the world. I have to say that GX sort of delivered in that sense, but it was amazing how it transformed from some drama at an academy to games that took place in another dimension against aliens. The previous Duels Monsters (DM) series had its fair share of ridiculousness, but in doses that I could tolerate. In GX it went a little bonkers, though I'm ... told the next series is even more out of whack. It was interesting to see what the writers had in mind for the plot as it bounced from here to there.

As expected, there were tons of characters with silly hair popping in and out of the show and a few that stayed around almost all the time. A few that I think are noteworthy (besides Jaden, the protagonist, of course) are pale blue haired and kiddish Cyrus, token female duelist Alexis, and wannabe cool Chazz.

I was quite annoyed at Jaden at first. He reminded me of Joey Wheeler because he talked big but didn't look like he could duel as well as he said. However, Jaden proved me wrong almost every time. The kid can duel and he knows it. I soon got used to his lame jokes and cheesy catchphrase, "Get your game on!" I was never a fan of his bushy brown hair (and still am not), but eh, that's him for you.

Cyrus' personality and appearance made him seem like another Yugi to me, only with half the dueling skills. He tags along with Jaden on his endeavors and lives in the shadow of his older and hotter brother Zane, who is the best duelist at Duel Academy. His deck containing various modes of transportation is cute.

As always, there is one female that stands out from the lot, and that is Alexis. She is hailed as the best female duelist at the academy and the most beautiful. I'm not sure if those two factors are correlated or not, but they probably are. I was quite annoyed with her character for having that kind of attention and thought that she said many unnecessary things. Plus, she has a not-so-secret crush on Jaden, though she tries to be cool about it.

The Chazz is pretty lackluster compared to the last series antagonist Seto Kaiba, as his dueling skills are definitely not up to par. His hair is also kind of weird, if you ask me. However, I love his cockiness and sarcastic comments, and once you watch the later episodes you begin to understand his actions and find out he has a good side. He might insult his friends all the time, but he does care about them.

Now then, after going through some key characters, I think you'll have a good idea of how they tie into the plot.

The first season seemed pretty tame to me. There wasn't much except dueling in school (and no dueling after lights out!), so all there was to handle was some petty drama in between students trying to size each other up and see which dorm was the best. Here, viewers got to see how great (or not-so-great) Duel Academy was.

For a place built on Seto Kaiba's cash, though, I don't think it had much to offer. You'd think dorms were separated by academic class (first years, second years, and third years), but they were more categorized by social class and skill. Oh, and all the females were placed in the best dorm despite how well they dueled. (I think that was because Obelisk Blue was the only dorm with adequate facilities for female students.) Also, uniforms are different from dorm to dorm. Slifer Red and Ra Yellow weren't that spectacular, but Obelisk Blue boys got to wear long coats and girls wore mini skirts and sleeveless shirts. I was quite fascinated by this class distinction because it was based on the three god cards from the last series, and of course, Kaiba's favorite was Obeslisk the Tormentor.

Okay, and then in the second season things started getting a little weird. In came these enemies that harnessed the power of darkness while hiding under the guise of "The Society of Light." They wore blindingly white coats and dueled others into submission. (Don't ask me how that works; it just does.) It was a stark contrast from the first season's school shenanigans such that it seemed quite ridiculous. And don't get me started on the new protagonist's hair. (OMG.)

The next two seasons were a little lost on me with the traveling into another dimension because of some alien with a grudge on Jaden for some unexplained reason (unexplained for an entire #^$% season!), warping the rules of dueling and resulting in some personality disorders and acquisition of magical powers. Add some transfer students and other crazy people to the mix and you've got yourself many new Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes worth mentioning.

As you can see, I wasn't a big fan of how the plot played out as the series went on. It wasn't a big muddle of confusion per se, but I didn't follow it sometimes and was averse to many situations. I know as a second Yu-Gi-Oh! series they try to make it original but want to keep the success of the first series, but they put Jaden into so many life-threatening circumstances that I felt they wanted to make him into a second king of games, and that title can only belong to one person. Also, I never once binge watched this series. At many points I found it to be extremely boring; I could count the number of episodes that I thought were captivating on the fingers of two hands, I think, and this has considerably less episodes than DM.

Art and animation? Eh, it's an old series, so I guess it's good for how it was. Everybody moves the way they're supposed to. The duel monsters look pretty cool for the most part. What I found the most issues with were the appearances of the characters. I hate how some characters have the hugest muscles. Others are rail thin but have abs. The majority of women are ample-breasted. Stuff like that.

Note that this series only has the first three seasons dubbed in English. The reason for this is that they started working on the next series of Yu-Gi-Oh! before finishing this one, so the fourth season of GX is only available in Japanese. I watched it just to finish and was taken aback by how cool the soundtrack was in comparison to the American one. The Japanese one opted for some softer tracks that were pretty and light sometimes and when something cool was needed, it wasn't in-your-face rockin', if you know what I mean. Some of the voice actors were better than the ones in the English dub (like Alexis/Asuka), but others weren't (Cyrus/Sho was voiced by a girl!). Nevertheless, I loved the Japanese OP.

Now, should you watch this? If you're a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, why not? If you haven't watched Yu-Gi-Oh! before, I guess you could try this out. If my review seems too negative, it's because I'm comparing GX to the stellar older series, but I suppose by itself GX isn't all that bad.

The characters I mentioned went through a ton of development, not only becoming better people but also improving their decks a whole lot. The animation is how Yu-Gi-Oh! is all right, nothing any more special than that. The soundtrack was so-so, but I expect the entire Japanese soundtrack is top-notch. Also, it's a curious thing to see how a children's card game can affect the fate of the world.

I enjoy this show for what it is and I had a lot of fun with it. The characters are easily the most enjoyable part of the show, but I feel they don't get fleshed out enough because we have to duel every episode in order to sell cardboard. Certain music tracks are actually very memorable with every opening is rocking in its own way and I did find myself getting into the comeback moves during duels with cards that are super questionable in terms of playability in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Sometimes character motivations get gipped in the sense that they just never pay off ... sometimes i.e. being forgotten or just so the story can continue on artificially; take Fubuki's duel against Fugiwara and Saiou's pivot from being redeemed to becoming a minion of Darkness for example. However, the writers of the show were able to explore some weird concepts that I never expected a show about a children's card game to take; like Judai and Yubel's predestined relationship from previous incarnations of themselves and how Judai basically fights the Lovecraftian embodiment of evil in the final episodes. Seriously what the heck. Anyway, I would like to recommend this anime to anyone familiar with the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG and also anyone who just wants some odd mid-2000s Japanese children's programming; also, Manjoume is the best character in the series :)

Well, as the animations has really been out-dated and worst for the picture quality. I have to say, it's hard to fill out enjoyment when old shows like the first series of Mobile Suit Gundam looks better than this or any older shows. The company that did this did it in lack of cash and grab. The English Dubbed characters themes are all over the place and doesn't align with the series themes. Each voice actor has a distinctive tone of voice that aches my head as of hearing them speak per line. Again, the sound-track is always so loud and it's not fitting for ... each scene. I do like the GX's opening. They could've done an ending as well for the series with Pharaoh and him walking together or something. But, it's a good classic nostalgia for people who've been watching 4Kids for years.

I've been a big fan of anime for years, and even tried to get into the original Yu-gi-oh. This is the best one in a long time. A lot of adapts just change the words and don't' make sense. this is pretty cool though. The characters are like real people (some like my friends!) and are pretty funny. I was watching one and I forgot it was a cartoon b/c it was so cool. Cartoon network needs to air it more. Anyone hear about new episodes? For my all time favorite anime adapts, this is nubmer two, right below dragon ball z. my favorite eps ... are the one with the Sacred beast cards and the match between jaden and zane. They had attacks with like 20000 points! not even yugi could pull that off!

Yu-Gi-Oh GX is a series taking place several years after the original series, which can be seen in episode one. The shows main character is Jaden/Judai Yuki, a young boy who dreams one day he will be the King of Games.
A different twist in this show that the original didn't have is that the main characters of the show (Jaden, Syrus, Chazz, Alexis, Zane, Bastion and a few others as time goes on) are school kid age like Yugi and Joey were at the time of the original Yu-Gi-Oh, however rather then be normal school students they live a school made by Seto Kaiba for ... dueling called Duel Academy.

Overall this show isn't half bad, but if you want to truly enjoy the show, I suggest you watch the subbed version of it rather than the Dub so that way you can see every episode of the series the way it was meant to be seen. I also recommend the sub since GX was canceled in the US before the end of Season 3 so the surprise Series Finale never aired here. Personally after reading some it I prefer the manga and recommend it over the show as it has a better more original story.

Definitely watch this over 5D's, when you watch it you can kind of relate from year to year of the show like I did when it first aired. Once again good series and second best in the franchise.

Like it's predecessor, 'GX' is an outstanding show. It is set after the events of duel monsters and follows a new protagonist who enters 'duel academy', a school dedicated to teaching people to duel.

Much like 'Duel Monsters' over the course of 'GX' you get invested in the characters and their stories, watching them grow as people and duellists. Watching the interactions and relationships built between characters while they undergo various challenges is a great experience.

I think to note is that the last season is not 'dubbed'. Personally after watching most of the show 'dubbed' I found it very hard to make the transition to 'subbed' ... as the new voices didn't fit the characters in my mind.