Yu-Gi-Oh! the complete series [part one]

Because nothing says Egyptian-theme like a Japanese anime

Ah, Yu-Gi-Oh!  The series that put both 4kids and a British otaku on the map.  So, what exactly can you say that hasn't been said?  Not much.  Every joke was already coined by said British otaku.

Alongside Pokemon and Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh! was one of the three anime series whose sole plot revolved around collecting something and using it to fight other people.  Having four different series that each had their own flair, I've been given many things to bitch about.

Let's start out where it all started, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters.

It's nice to see Japan making the vertically challenged important characters

Okay, so the story revolves around Yugi and his friends (Joey, the dumb blonde former-bully, best friend, and underdog duelist; Tea, the love interest; and Tristan . . . another guy).  I honestly can't complain because only a nerd like Yugi could be the hero of a series like this.  The first episode involves his grandfather being beaten by obvious rival, Seto Kaiba, and so Yugi challenges Kaiba to a duel . . . using the exact same deck he just beat.  Well, let's hope Yugi's a better duelist than his grandfather, who should have around 20 something years on the youngster.  Okay, so lets hope Yugi's got lady luck on his side

WHO THE CRAP IS THAT ON THE RIGHT?

Alright, so instead a light glows from Yugi's necklace and some other guy shows up wearing his clothes.  Alright, so are they going to wait for Yugi to get ba-NOPE!!! ON WITH THE DUEL!!

Okay, we know he's the protagonist and even though Kaiba summons three dragons, the guy wearing Yugi's clothes brings out the most awesome thing I've seen in my young life.  The ultimate card combo that can only be performed by having the five select cards.  The one, the only, Exodia, the Forbidden One.

This is when you know your fucked

So the guy wins, Yugi takes credit (WHERE WERE YOU DURING THE DUEL?), and the episode ends with some incredibly girly looking guy being told that Yugi just beat Kaiba . . . but he really didn't, this other guy did.  You know what, whatever.  Just roll with it.

Next episode we get a VHS tape that kidnaps Yugi's grandpa, so he & Joey enter a tournament on the girly-man's island.  Honestly, this entire section of the series is insane in that it doesn't follow any of the actual rules.  I guess it's honest to real gamers, where they'd try to bullshit there way out of any situation.  On the island we get to meet two people: their friend they never mentioned before now (Bakura) and Joey's love interest . . . his incredibly creepy when you think about it love interest (Mai).

So after dueling several nerds, Yugi and Joey both go to the finals and they find Kaiba waiting for them.  He won't let them pass until he duels Yugi and even uses a completely different way of dueling.  Of course it's the other guy that takes the challenge and ends up whooping Kaiba's ass, until he threatens that replacement-Yugi's next attack would send him to his death.  Of course the replacement is heartless enough to kill someone like this to keep his reputation, but real Yugi comes back and breaks down crying.  They spend an episode getting emotionally better then go off to the finals where they see the duel between Kaiba and the girly-man himself, Pegasus.

He's such a scary antagonist, isn't he?

Well, Kaiba get's his rich ass handed to him and turned into a card too.  Then we spend the next dozen episodes leading up to Yugi's double beating Joey in a duel, and then he has to go up against Pegasus himself.  Of course they explain that Pegasus has a fake eye that's got the same kind of magic that lets Yugi cheat in duels, but while Yugi's lets him replace himself with the taller guy Pegasus' gives him the incredibly useful ability to read minds.  So in the duel we see Yugi using his switching ability to change which mind knows which cards they have.  After a few more episodes we see Yugi wins and gets the title "King of Games".  Bakura (who is revealed to have a necklace like Yugi's, but his replacement is evil) takes Pegasus' eye, Yugi gives the prize money he won to Joey (to pay for a surgery his sister needs), and all is well . . . OR IS IT???

Okay, gotta admit it.  They look badass

Okay, so this time Kaiba's holding the tournament and we get the rules that are actually used in real dueling.  Sacraficing, attacking directly, all of that crap (of course Joey's still summoning fusion monsters without fusing).  This is where things start getting good.  Who's the badguy?  A FRIGGIN' CULT!  What kind of power do they have backing them?  THE POWER OF EGYPTIAN GODS!!  What kind of strategy does the first person Yugi and Joey duels use?  EXODIA!!! I love this, they actually used what made Yugi's double (who has been named Yami by this point) against him.  So Joey and Yugi go off into different directions and duel their way to the finals.  Somehow Mai made it there, Bakura's evil half dueled his way there (in ONE duel), the current big bad (Marik) and his manservent (Odion) are there, but they say that Odion's Marik and Marik is . . . some other guy that just happens to be a big enough nerd to duel his way here.  Last there's Marik's sister, who gave Kaiba one of those Egyptian god cards that Marik's after.  Yugi won one from one of Marik's cronies and Marik holds the third.  Yami beats evil Bakura into a coma, Kaiba beats Marik's sister (armed with a magic necklace too that lets her see the future) by using Marik's magic item (an axe-looking staff) without even having to touch it . . . so they work like that now?

Alright, so things really start getting interesting after Joey beats Odion (still pretending to be Marik) and lightning strikes him (just 'cause).  Marik's revealed and he gets an even more evil version of himself taking over his body.

Apparently they follow DBZ rules where more hair = more power

So evil Marik is on the run and beats Mai in a duel (did you honestly expect another outcome)?  Evil-Bakura comes to with help from normal Marik and they get their asses handed to them, but that won't stop the fangirls from thief shipping.  Then they take a complete tangent into a new arc where they get trapped in a matrix-esque world dueling with new rules & if they lose they lose their bodies, but they all win and move their asses outta' there.  Then we come to the finals where a four-way makes the semi's Yami vs Kaiba & Joey vs Evil Marik.

Of course Evil Marik beats Joey and Yami beats Kaiba (taking HIS god card), leading to the climactic duel that we've been waiting for.  And after several episodes Yugi beats the evil Marik by using both god cards and destroying the third, winning all three.  Marik explains to Yami he can use the cards to regain his lost memories, so he tries it and that leads into the series with THE most badass villain we've faced so far.

Oh, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning

Finally, an arc that DOESN'T revolve around a tournament.  Even that tangent arc was just them trying to get back TO the tournament, but in this it's just that they need to stop the big bad from destroying the world.  Okay, so we fight a bunch of bikers and we need to beat the big bad, and finally get back to trying to restore Yami's memories.

This part of the series was the most awesome because we not only get some of the darkest turns the series has taken so far.  Mai became a bad guy, and we have to deal with some of the nerds we beat in duelest kingdom again, but this time they've got UBER power from the big-bad.  We even lose some of the main characters.  I mean it, Joey and Yugi BOTH lose their souls to the big bad's power, but of course Yami wins another duel and I'm guessing that's it for the big bad, right?

I knew we forgot about something

NOOOOOPE!! Dartz (big bad) becomes the monster he's been gathering souls to release.  Of course, Yami beats it using the god cards.  But still, this was a nice break from the common formula.

And then we spend another arc with a tournament you know Yami's going to win, but Yugi's going to take all of the credit for.  The only interesting parts about the whole thing are that we get to see Yugi's grandpa duel and the final battle is between Yami and a guy that uses cards based on fairy-tales.

Okay, so we FINALLY get back to the memory plot and Yami goes back in time . . . accompanied by evil Bakura who put a piece of his soul in Yugi's necklace back during the second tournament.  The whole thing revolves around three simultaneous plots.  Yami's trying to regain his memories by screwing around in the past, present evil Bakura's beating everyone & making his monster stronger, past evil Bakura is trying to work for some strange evil power.  Sure, there are some strange plots involving the past and present Kaibas, but let's face it.  We just want to know how it ends for Yugi & Yami.

So we get one last climactic battle between the evil guy that Bakura was serving & Yami that ends with him somehow fusing the god cards by finally saying his real name (Atem).  Then we get to the FINAL part of the story, the last duel.

I call hacks

Okay, so to prove that Yugi can live on his own and to try to take away the argument he's been cheating all along, Yugi and Atem have one go at a final battle.  Yugi, who recently beat evil Bakura, uses a similar strategy and ultimately beats Atem.  We also get some sob story about how Tea wants him to stay because she loves him or some crap, but she doesn't really realize that HE'S BEEN DEAD FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!! Let him rest in peace, I mean c'mon!

So, after Yugi's proved he's able to live without Atem, he leaves as a ghost.  A heartfelt goodbye is given and we bid our series so long . . . until we hit the island.