Reviewed by: Becca & Jeff

Spoken Languages: Japanese, English

Directed by: N/A

Published by: N/A

A young boy, Yugi, finds himself in possession of a puzzle. After he puts it together, he finds that he can wear it as a necklace. Many Episodes later, he discovers that inside this puzzle is the soul of a Pharoah, Yami. This puzzle and the spirit helps the boy play a special card game better. This is no ordinary card game either, with the help of special machines the monsters on these cards come to life and duel eachother, hence the name Duel Monsters. Now, Yugi, and his friend are exploring the world of Duel Monsters together, making enemies and friends along the way.

I watched the first season on this, and it was pretty cool. I loved the new idea, which is simular to Pokemon, but with more thought and an grown-up twist. Unlike Pokemon, any monster in duel monsters can destroy any other monster if the card holder has the proper cards to juice their monster up. It's all about how you play and now what you play, which is the thing I hated most about Pokemon.

The characters are decent, I mean they are nothing to oo and awe about. Their personalities have several holes, and are rather stereotypical. The friendship issue they get into makes you want to choke the next friend you see, just to say "Hey, friendship isn't everything, punk!" As a matter of a fact, the only reason Yugi and his friend win any duel is because of their friendship... or actually that's what they try to say. It's really that Yugi has Yami, and the rest of them have Yugi. Uh, yeah that helps um alot to have the champion with two souls on your side of the game.

After the first season it only gets more corny, and it starts to lose it's new sensation and moves right into "Please, do anything else but this... please!" It worth to watch though everyday Saturday just to waste some minutes. Btw if you want to see the worst Subbing ever, watch one of these in Sub and the same episode in dubbed. I mean it is HORRIBLE!

I'm not one for some of the shows coming out of Japan geered towards children (i.e. Pokemon), however this show is something quite different all together. It adds a lot more in depth story, and egyptian mythology to make the story very full. The characters for the most part are done well. Yugi is a very cool character both as Yami and Yugi, and its very interesting how they integrated two souls into one body, and they way they co-exist with each other peacefully, and how they help each other out. Joey, Tristan, and Te`a are all ok characters. Joey and Tristan are there mostly for comic relief, and Te`a is there to be the feminine character needed to make this show universally liked (they have to have at least one girl.)

The reason I really like this show is because of the Duels. I love how they are fought out, and how even though you don't have rare cards, you can still win with the proper strategy. This allows many of the underdog characters (i.e. Joey) to be successful with dueling and be a character we can all cheer on, because he is the underdog.

This show does get a little melodramatic, but I find that the content of the show to far outweigh something that trivial.

The Monsters are all very cool, I don't think I have seen one monster that I said "geez, that was really lame." All the battles are close, and make it very exciting to watch. Although this show is meant for kids, I find its really easy to get hooked as an adult, and they add some elements that are meant for the older viewing audience.

So, let your inner child come out to play and watch this show, I'll promise you that at the very least, you'll like the dueling and action.