Author’s Note: This is a remastered version of an article published on July 9, 2020.

I was introduced to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! through the English dub of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime (titled Yu-Gi-Oh! in the US). Most people born in the 90’s could probably say the same thing, although I didn’t get into the franchise when it first came out back in 2001. My earliest memories of Yu-Gi-Oh! are from my second grade years. I remember seeing my classmates bringing the cards to school – with that unforgettable brown-and-black vortex on the back. When we were learning about the difference between “oo” and “oh” sounds, one of my classmates said “Yu-Gi-Oh!” but the teacher didn’t know how to spell it, so he had to get one of his trading cards. I remember playing the card game with one of my best friends growing up, which is where I learned that you have to compare each monster’s attack points to determine which one wins. We played it like you might have done with Pokémon cards as a kid, where instead of playing the actual game, you just have 1v1 matchups with each monster.

I remember as I watched cartoons growing up, I would see commercials for Yu-Gi-Oh! My perception of the show and card game was pretty much the same as any outsider’s You mean they play the card game in the show instead of fighting? That sounds stupid, and an obvious marketing strategy. That protagonist looks weird, and his voice sounds a little too deep for his appearance. If the Attack and Defense points of a monster are so important, why are they so small and shoved into the bottom corner of the card? I don’t know if anyone else thought that last one, but I sure did.

It wasn’t until I started watching reruns of Yu-Gi-Oh! on The CW4Kids when I started to get into the franchise. Previously, I had been watching KidsWB on The CW, but in the summer of 2008, the network replaced that cartoon block with The CW4Kids. So, I guess you could say I was baited and switched into watching Yu-Gi-Oh! When the network switched cartoon blocks, they started playing the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I started watching the show, but as I expected…the show was flat out weird. Have you seen Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? If you have, you probably know what I’m talking about. The characters all look weird, the story arcs go wherever the writers want them to, and in the later seasons, if you lose a duel, you straight up die. Needless to say, I still wasn’t much of a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan.

After 4Kids abruptly cut Yu-Gi-Oh! GX at the end of Season 3, leaving Jaden ambiguously dead, they began to premier Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s. I started off not really watching any of it, but I picked it up again at the episode where Yusei gets thrown in jail, and for some reason, I started to get invested into the show (not sure why it was that episode though). As the show progressed, I found myself enjoying it more and more. Despite it featuring “card games on motorcyles,” the show seemed to have a nice edge to it and the sci-fi element made it all the more intriguing.

In the fall of 2009, the CW4Kids announced they would be putting Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s on hiatus (this might have been when they were dealing with lawsuits, but I wouldn’t have known that at the time), and instead they would be airing episodes of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! I thought this show would be even worse than Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, but I would soon realize just how wrong I was.

The show began playing somewhat like I expected it to, with the characters showing off how cool they were because they played this card game (which, again, looked like an obvious marketing strategy), but it wasn’t until it got to the third episode when the show really started to intrigue me. In the middle of third episode, the main character, Yugi Muto, tells the story of how he met his best friend, Joey Wheeler. Yugi says that Joey used to pick on him and one day stole a prized possesion of his called the Millennium Puzzle, but when Joey was getting assaulted by another bully, Yugi decided to stand up for him and protect him. What started to change my perspective of the show was the character of Yugi Muto. I admired how he had the courage to stand up for someone even though he was picking on him. As I kept watching Yugi fight his way through Duelist Kingdom and stand up to the villainous Maximillion Pegasus, I started to see him as a hero who always stood for what was right.

Years later when I started my first year of college, I began watching the series again and I found myself coming back to that third episode, and for some reason, it felt like this was a cut version of a full story that existed elsewhere. I knew about the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, so I decided to start searching there. And sure enough, the very first chapter of the manga tells the full version of that story – the story of how Yugi and Joey met.

The Beginning

The chapter begins with Yugi sitting alone in his classroom playing with a toy. A fellow classmate invites Yugi to play basketball, but Yugi politely declines and says that whatever team he is on just ends up losing.

“I wish I could play my kind of games with someone,” says Yugi, as he pulls of his backpack a golden box in the shape of a sarcophagus. On the box is a riddle that says, “It’s something you see, but have never seen before!”

Yugi wonders what that could mean. Before he has a chance to open the box, it suddenly gets swiped away from him. Yugi looks up and sees a guy by the name of Honda.

When 4Kids was translating the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime into English, they changed a lot of the character names to adapt to an American audience. Yugi’s name is the same, but Joey was originally Jonouchi, Tristan was originally Honda, and Téa was originally Anzu. For some (probably better) reason, the English translator of the manga decided to keep the original Japanese names of the characters. Thus, this “Honda” person who swipes Yugi’s box is known as “Tristan” in the English dub of the anime.

Honda, along with his buddy Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the anime), make fun of Yugi for oogling at a jewelry box like some kind of girl. Jonouchi wants to teach Yugi how to be more manly, so he tries to get Yugi to throw a punch at him, but he screams that he hates fighting and violence.

This is the twist that manga creator, Kazuki Takahashi, wanted to add to his shonen story. When Takahashi was generating ideas for a manga, he knew he wanted to write a battle story, but with all of the fighting manga that already existed, he found it difficult to come up with something original. Takahashi decided to create a protagonist who doesn’t fight with his fists, but instead becomes a hero whenever he plays games. So far, that skill doesn’t seem to be very handy when trying to stand up to bullies.

Jonouchi and Honda begin playing keep-away with Yugi’s golden box. Being short in stature, Yugi has no chance of getting it back, that is until a girl named Anzu comes to get him out of trouble. Yugi introduces Anzu (or Téa in the anime) as his childhood friend, and says she is a cute but stubborn girl. She’s so stubborn in fact, that she scares Honda and Jonouchi out of the classroom.

Anzu returns the box back to Yugi and asks what’s inside it. Yugi says he will show Anzu, but only if she promises to keep it a secret. Yugi opens the box and reveals a collection of sparkling puzzle pieces that look as if they are made out of pure gold. Yugi has never finished the puzzle, so he doesn’t know what it looks like. Thus, the completed puzzle is ‘something he can see, but has never seen before.’

Yugi explains to Anzu that his family runs a store that sells games and puzzles from around the world. He found this puzzle years ago on a shelf covered with dust, so he decided to keep it for himself. Yugi’s grandpa says it’s called the Millennium Puzzle, and it was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century when a team of archaeologists took it out of a pharaoh’s crypt in The Valley of the Kings. However, all those who were in the team died of mysterious deaths, and the last one said with his dying breath, “THE SHADOW GAMES!”

Yugi thinks the hieroglyphs on the box say something like, “Whosoever solves this puzzle shall be granted one wish,” but he admits that he might just be day dreaming.

“But this puzzle is major hard,” explains Yugi, “I’ve been working on it for eight years, and I’ve never solved it.”

“Don’t give up, Yugi!” says Anzu, “Your heart is in it!”

“Yup, I’ll do my best!”

Ushio

Outside the classroom, Honda and Jonouchi are complaining about how mad Anzu makes them for calling them bullies. Not watching where they are going, they run right into a big, bulky hall monitor named Ushio.

“What were you saying about bullies?” asks Ushio.

“Nothing, keep outta this you…,” retorts Jonouchi.

“Picking on people is bad!” says Ushio.

“Yes, that is so true!” responds Honda, as he pulls Jonouchi away before he can pick a fight with him.

“Jonouchi, who do you think you’re picking a fight with?” Honda asks, “That’s the ‘ogre of a hall monitor’ Ushio! He makes all the rules at school! Even the teachers are too scared of him to say anything!”

Once they get away from Ushio, Jonouchi says he has something interesting to show Honda. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle.

“I just got a glimpse, but it looked like a puzzle!” says Jonouchi, “so, if he’s missing this piece, he can’t solve it!”

Then, he throws the puzzle piece out of the window and into a pool.

The next day, Yugi arrives at school feeling exhausted. He stayed up late last night trying to solve the Millennium Puzzle.

Ushio enters the classroom and asks Yugi to follow him. He leads him outside to show him that Jonouchi and Honda have been beaten up.

“I decided to teach these bullies a lesson!” says Ushio, “One they wouldn’t forget!”

“Ushio, this is too much!” says Yugi, and asks if Jonouchi is alright.

“Yugi, you bastard, are you happy now?” asks Jonouchi.

“It’s not true! You think I asked him to do this?”

“I’m not finished punishing them,” says Ushio, as he shoves his foot right into Jonouchi’s chest.

Yugi stands between Ushio and his targets and tells him to stop hurting them.

“You’re a strange one,” says Ushio, “This is your chance to get back for everything.”

“I can’t do that to my friends!” cries Yugi.

“Well, whatever,” responds Ushio, “but remember, you still have to pay what you owe! Bodyguard charges…for 200,000 yen, you can hit these guys all you want.”

Yugi doesn’t respond.

“What’s this, you aren’t satisfied until I hurt them more?” continues Ushio.

“Don’t touch these two any more! If you’re going to hurt someone, hurt me!” says Yugi.

“You’re beyond strange, you’re crazy,” says Ushio, “All right then, as you wish. I’ll show you what will happen if you don’t pay up!”

Ushio proceeds to assault Yugi with all kinds of kicks and punches. While getting beat up, Yugi thinks about the wish he made on the Millennium Puzzle. He wished for friends…friends he can count on…friends who could count on him…no matter what. When Ushio finishes, he tells Yugi to bring the money the next day, or he will teach him even more pain with the knife he has hidden under his jacket.

Yugi returns home and starts counting his money, but he doesn’t have enough to pay Ushio. Yugi tries to come up with a plan, but he keeps getting distracted trying to solve the Millennium Puzzle. For some reason, Yugi notices that solving the puzzle seems easier today. After many successfull clicks, Yugi finally solves the Millennium Puzzle – except for one piece. He reaches inside the box for the last piece, but it’s gone! Yugi searches his entire room but he cannot find it.

Yugi’s grandpa enters the room and is surprised to see that he has completed the puzzle.

“I couldn’t finish it after all, Grandpa,” says Yugi.

“Yugi, you’ve poured your heart into the puzzle for the last eight years,” says Grandpa, “You should have more faith!”

Yugi turns around and sees the last piece of the puzzle in Grandpa’s hand. Grandpa promised not to tell Yugi, so we hear in his thoughts that Jonouchi brought it to him in the middle of the night, although he was soaking wet. Jonouchi also said they were getting assaulted by a bully named Ushio, who is threatening Yugi to pay him, so Grandpa places some money in Yugi’s backpack.

As Grandpa walks away, he says, “It’s written in the Book of the Dead that the one who solves the puzzle inherits the shadow games. He becomes the guardian of right and passes judgment on evil.”

After Grandpa leaves the room, Yugi inserts the last piece into the Millennium Puzzle.

And then…

The First Shadow Game

Yugi calls Ushio and tells him to come to the school grounds in the middle of the night. When he gets there, he sees Yugi, but he looks a bit…different.

Yugi thanks Ushio for coming and says he brought 400,000 yen instead of the requested 200,000.

“But this much money…it wouldn’t be any fun to just hand it over,” says Yugi, “So how about you play a game with me! Not just any game…a Shadow Game! How about it? If you win, you get more than 200,000 yen.”

“Interesting,” says Ushio.

“We need just one tool to play this game. That knife you’ve got hidden!”

So Ushio gives Yugi the knife. (A little too trusting, isn’t he?)

Then Yugi explains the rules of the Shadow Game. Each player will place the stack of money on the back of their hand, then with their other hand, the player will use the knife to stab as many bills as they can without stabbing their hand. The player will win however many bills they manage to stab with the knife. The game continues until all of the bills are gone.

“But if you break the rules, as punishment, the Penalty Game decides your fate!” cautions Yugi.

First, they Ro-Sham-Bo to see who goes first. Yugi wins (of course).

Yugi goes first and picks up less than 10 bills. It seems he is playing it safe instead of risky.

Ushio goes next. He collects over 100,000 yen without leaving a mark on his hand, but thinks he should have stabbed harder.

The game proceeds for a while until it finally comes back to Ushio’s turn. There’s not much money left, so Ushio is confident that he can take the rest of the money, but as he hovers the knife over the pile of money, he suddenly realizes that he cannot relax his arm.

“What’s wrong? I’m using too much strength,” thinks Ushio, “My right arm isn’t listening to my brain!”

“In the Shadow Games, a person’s true nature is revealed to decide their fate,” explains Yugi, “Ushio, your right arm is controlled by your own greed, you can no longer stop it. What will you do? Will you sacrifice your left hand to get the money or…”

“The answer is simple!” says Ushio, “There’s a way I can take a stab without hurting my left hand and getting all of the money! You let me hold the knife! That’s why you lose! Die Yugi!”

Ushio tries to stab Yugi with the knife, but Yugi dodges by jumping backwards (and I think he also uses the Millennium Puzzle to shield himself).

Suddenly, a glowing eye appears on Yugi’s forehead.

“Just as I thought, you weren’t able to follow the rules after all!” says Yugi, “This [eye] is only seen by those who trespass in my soul! Like those who hurt my friends and try to steal my money!”

“Penalty Game! The Illusion of Avarice!” cries Yugi.

The Penalty Game causes Ushio to see money falling from the sky.

“They say that money can make your head spin, but now the only thing in your head is the Illusion of Avarice!” continues Yugi, as he walks away, “For as greedy as you are, this might be a happy end for you.”

Yu-Jo Friendship

Yugi arrives at school the next day, but he can’t remember anythng that happened the night before, except that he solved the Millennium Puzzle.

“That’s right! I finally finished the Millennium Puzzle!” cries Yugi, as he tosses it into the air.

After he turns the corner, he sees Jonouchi resting against the wall.

After asking how he is doing, Jonouchi says, “Yugi, if you can keep a treasure, so can I! Want to see it?”

“Yup,” responds Yugi.

“You can’t! I’ll give you a hint! It’s something you can show, but can’t see! You give up? It’s friendship. Thanks for showing that we’re friends.”

It’s not translated well in the English version, but Jonouchi makes a pun out of his and Yugi’s names by combing the first two letters of each name to create the Japanese word yu-jo, which means “friendship”.

And that’s the complete story of how Yugi and Jonouchi became friends.

Thoughts

For those who have read the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga after watching the English dub of the anime, I’m sure I’m not alone when I was surprised that this chapter literally had nothing to do with a trading card game. When Yami-Yugi challenges Ushio to a game, I was half expecting him to whip out a deck of cards. Eventhough the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise is inseparable from a trading card game, it is kind of refreshing to see these characters do more than just one thing all the time. In a way, it makes them feel more real.

I was also quite surprised at how much darker and edgier the manga is compared to the anime. Don’t get me wrong, even the English dub of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is still significantly edgier than something like Pokémon, but seeing Yugi engaging in a perpetual knife fight is something I never thought I’d see coming from the anime.

Anyway, those who have been following my blog for the past 4 years or so will know that I have been reviewing the first 49 chapters of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. Realizing that some of my older reviews may not be up to par with my more recent ones, like the reviews I’ve been writing for Sword Art Online, I plan to go back and remaster them to a more acceptable standard. As the great Seto Kaiba said, “I have never settled for mediocrity, and neither should you.”

It will probably be no surprise to my readers, and those who have read the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, that the next chapter will feature Yugi as the unsuspecting victim of a documentary on bullying. And somehow, a number greater than six will be rolled with a single d6. If you want to find out how, be sure to follow my blog for more remasterd Yu-Gi-Oh! manga reviews.

Images from the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga were obtained from https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/yu-gi-oh

Original article: https://mentallabyrinth.com/2020/07/09/yu-gi-oh-before-card-games-yu-gi-oh-chapter-1-review/

Have you read the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga? Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!