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Yu-Gi-Oh! You've either saw on KidsWB or you saw kids in your school playing the card game. This was actually how my first encounter went with the franchise. I've actually had never finished reading the manga until recently as I had wanted to watch the Darkside of Dimensions with the manga storyline fresh in my head (and because that movie is a sequel to the manga, not the anime). Warning to those wanting to read though, there are some slight spoilers in this review.

I figured I needed to reread Yu-Gi-Oh! from the start. So from reading the early chapters again, I still was shocked by ... how different it was from the standard Duel Monsters anime. The early chapters focused entirely on shadow games and each chapter or arc dealt with different games. Think Kaiji but with magic! The early artwork was a bit rough but after a couple chapters Takahashi-san's artwork improved especially around Death-T and Duelist Kingdom.

One of my favorite things about Yu-Gi-Oh is how well some of these characters complement each other. I think Yugi's friendship with Jounouchi and the Pharaoh are great, his rivalry with Kaiba is also one of my favorites in general. I'd also argue that the hair designs and clothing are some of the most appealing and iconic in manga/anime.

I can understand why some people were disappointed in how Yu-Gi-Oh! went from a shadow game survival manga to just a card game manga but since I was fond of the card game, I did not mind the change. I actually managed to appreciate some of the characters a bit more after reading this as I did not really like Jounouchi/Joey at first but seeing their friendship grow over the storyline made me enjoy the friendship Yugi and Jounouchi have. One moment in particular was the duel between the two in Battle City. The writing done during that moment was very emotional and you could tell that these two characters valued their friendship. It made me want a friendship that was as strong as Yugi's.

One of the few gripes I have with this manga is how forgiving Yugi is with some of his adversaries. I know Kaiba is one of the most popular characters in the franchise but I felt his change was quite rapid and how quick Yugi was able to forgive him. This was a guy who had spent millions of dollars just to create a theme park with the goal of killing Yugi and his friends. At least Jounouchi was the reasonable voice and exclaimed to Yugi in how he wasn't able to forgive him for the misdeeds he had done in the past. There's also Ryuji/Devlin's dad who almost killed Yugi and burned his entire business down just to exact revenge on his grandfather, yet in the canon DSOD movie we see Jounouchi working for his new business. Where's the police? Shouldn't these people even be in jail for attempted murder? At least with Kaiba he had his penalty game set to recover his lost heart but with the creepy clown he basically got off the hook from attempted murder. I get that it’s fictional with shadow games but this detail irked me alot.

I think Yu-Gi-Oh's weakest quality is with some of its characters and sappy dialogue but I really do enjoy how Takahashi-san is able to give some of his characters charm and chemistry with one another. I especially enjoy Kaiba's rivalry with Yugi, and Yugi's friendship with Jounouchi and the Pharaoh. That’s also probably a good reason why there’s so much doujins involving these characters cause the characters really are in sync with each other and complement one another. I think this is why DSoD felt a bit off since Yugi no longer had the Pharaoh to guide him and Kaiba viewed him more as a rival than Yugi which eventually led to Yami having to step in and save the day.

I think that Yu-Gi-Oh! Is a great manga overall and I would highly recommend it for those who did grow up with the card game and never got past the anime. There’s a lot of cuts and changes made from both anime adaptations and it’s really a shame since the manga is much darker as other reviewers have pointed out even during the Duel Monsters focused arcs and its reputation as kids anime has outshined it’s darker origins. You can tell that Takahashi-san was very influenced by Araki and JoJo with some of the art and horror aspects. Other than that, it’s a great Shonen Jump classic and Its cultural impact is still felt to this day with the new spinoffs and daily references to it in modern anime like No Game No Life to even western shows like Family Guy as it’s still one of Shonen Jump’s most popular and beloved titles alongside titles like One Piece, JoJo and Death Note.

Overall, Yu-Gi-Oh! Has certainly taken its rightful place as King of Games.

Char's Counterattack should not exist.

This movie was a slap in the face to those who enjoyed Zeta Gundam and Char Aznable. I'm shocked to see many users here giving this movie such a high score when it really doesn't deserve it. Spoilers ahead, You've been warned.

Let's start off with the plot, with no reason given nor hints during the entirety of Zeta Gundam and it's sequel ZZ (which Char never appeared in), we see that Char Aznable, the man who gave that great speech to ward off the titans from Earth, is now the leader of Neo-Zeon. Char's goal is to wipe all life ... on Earth by dropping an asteroid on it. Yes, the same Char who refused to join with Haman Karn in Zeta who also had a similar ambition (dropping colonies in ZZ) is now trying to kill all of Earth's inhabitants. Why and how did this happen? We saw that Char got over the death of Lalah in Zeta, yet here he is in this film complaining to Amuro that Lalah could've been his mother. It's almost like that "MARTHA" meme from Batman v Superman. Does this movie at least take the time to explain why he's doing this? Barely. His motive for doing all this is to get back at Amuro for killing Lalah, when he actually teamed up with him during Zeta without even a hint of a grudge against him. Again this all doesn't make any sense.

Do you see a pattern in this review? It's like Yoshiyuki Tomino and his writers wanted to undo Zeta Gundam's story when it's actually one of the best stories from the U.C.

Another gripe I had with this film was the characters, there was barely enough time to get to see characters like Amuro and Char. Instead screen time is given to characters like Quess and Hathaway, and let me just say, if you thought Reccoa was a bitch, wait till you see Quess. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, you'll come to wish Bright came out early to slap the shit outta her. I was actually cheering for Chen when she killed Quess but that turned into disappointment with Hathaway acting even worse than Kamille or Amuro's tantrums by killing Chen. I almost felt bad for her but then I realized it was Chen's fault that one of the key crew members from the Argama, Astonaige dies due to her recklessness. A pointless death that wasn't given any mourning or impact. Just a quick boom, he's dead. Just like how Tomino cared for Zeta when he wrote this movie.

I wanted to see some of the characters like Astonaige and Bright react to Char's sudden change of character, but instead we're given a sappy side love triangle/square between Quess, Gyunei, Hathaway and Char. What for? At least 3 of these characters end up dead anyway. Another thing that I would've love to see are characters like Sayla and Kamille show up. Remember that crappy ending with the Newtype Psychic wave that covered the Earth? I would've loved to see Kamille and Sayla sense and feel that wave. What did we get instead? An old grandma and some animals reacting to this wave. Not even a cameo from those two. I guess Kamille and Sayla missed out on this shitfest. I think the movie would've been slightly better if we had them show up in some way to remind viewers that those characters still exist. I would've loved to see Kamille and Sayla just try and ask why Char is doing all this exactly like I was when I saw this movie.

The ending was a WTF moment too, did Amuro and Char die? Did they just disappear out of thin air? The last thing we hear from Amuro is a "aughh". We didn't even see the cockpit explode or the asteroid explode either. It just moves away from the Earth. I guess I'll have to watch Unicorn to find out. I'm getting a lot of mixed messages on this ending.

I read some background information on this film and found that Tomino actually based this film on a novel he did. So basically this movie was all just a cash grab to get his novel to sell but most of the stuff he writes turn outs to be the exact opposite of what actually happens in the anime so I guess this time we didn't get so lucky. (He originally wanted Amuro dead in the original series and in Zeta, he wanted Kamille to commit suicide after killing Scirocco.) I think we should be glad that someone is forcing him to change these endings around but I guess since he was allowed the reigns to do as he pleases in this film, we got such a sad and pathetic sequel.

Trust me, I wanted to like this film, this was hyped up among the Gundam fandom for being the thrilling conclusion between Amuro and Char's rivalry, but instead I left disappointed. This was as much as a negative whiplash to me as Tenchi Muyo's OVA 3 was. Both this film and Tenchi OVA 4 required reading outside source material that never left outside of Japan, leaving viewers like me just confused on this whole film. This film probably would've been a lot better if it was another TV series instead of a movie, that way we might understand these new characters better. For now, this movie really blows. 4/10