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1For the '''card game''', see [[YMMV/YuGiOhCardGame here]].
2
3For the '''1998 anime''', see [[YMMV/YuGiOhFirstAnimeSeries here]].
4----
5[[foldercontrol]]
6
7[[folder:Entire franchise]]
8* AdaptationDisplacement: The various shows have come and gone, and are still popular, but the card game is consistently popular and is likely the first thing thought of when ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' is mentioned.
9* AluminumChristmasTrees: Every card in the Trains archetype is based on an actual existing train, which can be a surprise for players. Jet-powered trains? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbojet_train They existed.]] Snowplow trains? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_snowplow They're still around.]] Giant train-mounted cannons? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_gun Yup.]] Muddying it further is that several cards in the archetype are decidedly unrealistic, especially Night Express Knight (who is still based on a night express).
10* AmericansHateTingle: The announcement of the [[https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/products/ssegc/ stainless steel Egyptian God Cards]] shortly after the infamous Platinum Dark Magician was met with near-universal derision from Western fans, who accused Konami of trying to charge $400 for "cheap-looking fake cards" despite the cards being taken directly from Kazuki Takahashi's illustrations in the manga. However, the announcement of the product for Japan, where attachment to the original manga is much higher, was met with near-universal ''hype'' instead, with some users even expressing jealously towards TCG players prior to the product's Japanese announcement.
11* ArchivePanic: There's 343 chapters of the manga, 27 episodes of the Toei anime, 224 episodes of the second-series anime, at least 4 movies, and tons of video games. That's not even counting the spin-offs that all have their own anime, manga, and video games.
12* AssPull: Franchise-wide, you could make a drinking game out of all the times [[TheMagicPokerEquation a duelist topdecks just the card they need]], but you would destroy your liver after a single story arc. This tendency is seemingly even ''considered an ability'' in-universe, with characters marveling at someone's "skill" when they draw the perfect card - not uncommonly an entirely new one you've never heard of before that happens to do exactly what's needed to reverse the situation, and this can come up multiple times for both opponents to prolong the match. Hell, in the GX anime, there were duelists who did things like draw cards as they fell from waterfalls to build this power... and this works fantastically. This is also apparently an actual superpower granted by the Millennium Puzzle.
13* BrokenBase: There have been millions of hours spent arguing over which (if any) of the spin-offs are any good.
14* CommonKnowledge: It's often been claimed that {{Creator/Funimation}} has attempted to create uncut dubs of different entries of the franchise. Two unfinished ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' dubs are often cited as being made by them: the uncut dub of DM, which only had 9 episodes released before getting cancelled, and the alternate ''[=ZEXAL=]'' dub that was created when Creator/FourKidsEntertainment was being sued by NAS. However, neither of theses dubs were actually produced by Funimation: the uncut dub of DM was still made by 4Kids while the alternate ''[=ZEXAL=]'' dub was actually produced by Creator/BangZoomEntertainment. They are likely mistaken for Funi dubs because they had [=DVDs=] released by Funi and multiple voice actors known for working with Funimation cast in it, respectively. In fact, the alternate ''Zexal'' dub wasn't even uncut, with NAS having actually given Bang Zoom! the original animation files for the show in order to make it easier to edit the footage.
15* CompleteMonster: [[Monster/YuGiOh Has its own page]].
16* ContestedSequel: Every single spin-off is this both to ''Duel Monsters'' and to the spin-off immediately before it.
17* CriticalDissonance: All incarnations of the franchise have been huge financial successes and run for years, but many people outside the demographic consider them to be little more than either a commercial or watered-down garbage. Complaints include over-reliance on gimmicks.
18* EnsembleDarkhorse: Thunder Dragon and its Fusion Monster upgrade, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon. It wasn't prominent in the main franchise, only featuring in two {{Filler Arc}}s in the anime. But in the early video games for the series, which let you freely fuse monsters in your hand and then summon them, it's almost a MemeticBadass due to having high stats and being easy to fuse.[[note]]Essentially, any Thunder monster and any Dragon monster will create Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, as long as one of them has more than 1600 ATK; and that restriction could be bypassed with a third Dragon monster by fusing the first two to create the normal Thunder Dragon and then fusing it with the second Dragon.[[/note]] Ask anyone who remembers playing ''Forbidden Memories'' and they'll have a story about Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon winning the day for them. They also got some attention in the early 2000s and the metagame's Chaos era.[[note]]Thunder Dragon's effect to discard itself and search out its other two copies makes it great deck filler, its an easy way to get a Light monster in the Graveyard for a Chaos monster's summoning condition, and it's a +1 to card advantage that provides more discard fodder.[[/note]] This may have been a reason why they got expanded into a full archetype in the New 10s, and their new boss monster Thunder Dragon Colossus was very cool and ''very'' powerful, so much so it got banned in 2020.
19* FanNickname:
20** Japanese fans often called Yugi "AIBO" (Japanese for "partner") and Yami "Majesty" (ĹŚ-sama).
21** The protagonists of the series, due to their MemeticHair, generally get nicknames based on their hairstyles. Yugi's is the "starfish". Jaden's is a Kuriboh, this one has been particularly popularized by the AbridgedSeries. Also often called as a "jellyfish". Yusei gained the nickname of "crabhead". Yuma's is the most difficult to describe, but is commonly described as either a "shrimp" or a "lionfish." Yuya has been unanimously described as a tomato, his {{Identical Strange|r}}rs Yuto, Yuri, and Yugo is described as eggplant, cabbage, and banana respectively. Yusaku's seems to be based on a swordfish.
22** Mako Tsunami/Ryota Kakiji is generally fondly referred to as "the freaky fish guy", something Joey calls him in the English version and that stuck over the years, particularly after ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' called attention to it.
23* FriendlyFandoms:
24** Quite the overlap has formed between fans of the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' franchise and those of the ''Franchise/DragonBall'' franchise. A major part of this is that both series' [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries abridged]] [[WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged versions]] are in close collaboration with each other, but on the official side of things, the mid-2010s saw both franchises get new anime installments in the form of ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' as well as new movies. It also helps that they aired concurrently for a good chunk of their runs, broadcasting new episodes within hours of each other each week. Even in-universe, Yugi is apparently a fan of the latter, mentioning it in the very first chapter of the manga.
25** The fandom also overlaps greatly with the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fandom. Both franchises are superficially very similar, as they achieved much of their popularity with kids around the turn of the millennium with an anime dubbed by Creator/FourKidsEntertainment in the west[[note]]both dubs are considered to be among [=4Kids'=] better/more tolerable works[[/note]] and a trading card game, and achieved a notable fanbase of nostalgic adults as the original child fanbase grew up. Both franchises also have powerful dragon characters that became heavily-hyped franchise staples and among the most sought-after cards in their respective [=TCGs=], with Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon for ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' and Charizard for ''Pokémon''. Crosses with HilariousInHindsight as ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' introduce Reshiram and Zekrom, which are actual Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon Pokémon.
26** ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' fans love to compare the entire show to ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' and its sequels. It's easy to see why thanks to both series taking their respective subjects [[SeriousBusiness very seriously while acknowledging]] their over-the-top antics, memetic hand and body poses, SerialEscalation, and HamToHamCombat. The storytelling of both series is also similar in execution, split into separate parts that each following a new protagonist contrasting the last, but the same overarching theme of overcoming fate and friendship. There is also a theory that Kazuki Takahashi was inspired to make a card game by the D'arby scenes in Stardust Crusaders.
27** Fandom overlaps with the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' seems a little too obvious to ignore, especially with the first three anime shows -- ''Duel Monsters'' (along with the [[Manga/YuGiOh original manga]]), ''[[Anime/YuGiOhGX GX]]'', and ''[[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds 5D's]]'' are analogous to the Heisei Ultra trinity of [[Series/UltramanTiga Tiga]], [[Series/UltramanDyna Dyna]], and [[Series/UltramanGaia Gaia]]. Both of their respective protagonists would team up at one point or another: ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime'' has Yugi, Judai, and Yusei teaming up against Paradox, whereas ''[[Film/UltramanGaiaTheBattleInHyperspace The Battle in Hyperspace]]'' has the TDG Ultras being brought into the real world by children to fight a {{Kaiju}} manifested from someone's negative emotions. Judai also having an Elemental Hero Monster heavily inspired by the Ultramen and being named after one of them (Neos) greatly helps.
28* HilariousInHindsight: The card game as treated in the anime and manga is a TropeCodifier for SeriousBusiness; one can have a lucrative career playing Duel Monsters, schools exist to teach how to play the game, and there are major multinational corporations dedicating to creating the cards and tie-in accessories for them like the Duel Disk. In the 90s when this franchise began, all of this seemed ludicrous. But this was before the rise of e-sports and internet streaming, fields where players ''can'' make a living playing video games as their full-time job, and there are professional teams, camps, and schools for some of them. Not to mention that others stream or record themselves opening packs of trading cards, or analyzing cards and decks, and there is an audience who will watch them. While the real world will never treat Duel Monsters with the prestige the anime and manga do, that treatment isn't so silly and outlandish these days.
29* {{Misblamed}}: Konami gets flack whenever [[TroubledProduction there's an issue]] [[ExecutiveMeddling happening]] in the anime series. But, Konami only creates the card game and the master rules. It's actually NAS and Creator/StudioGallop who has creative freedom for all the animated shows, and most of the TroubledProduction happening stems from them. Granted, some weird changes and cards disappearing in the anime are thanks to the banlists Konami releases every year ([[DemotedToExtra Firewall Dragon]] and [[GameBreaker Pot of Greed]] for example).
30* {{Narm}}: [[Narm/YuGiOh Has its own page.]]
31* NarmCharm: For some, this is the appeal of the franchise. The hammy, over-the-top dramatics people invoke in playing what ''The Abridged Series'' lovingly reminds us is a card game intended for children, are equal parts stupid and entertaining. This is especially applicable to cards that have impossible stats or otherwise break the boundaries of what was previously possible in the game -- the writers are breaking the rules of the game for the sake of RuleOfCool, but often they do it well enough to get away with it. The English dubs of the show pretty much run on the how ridiculous the premise is.
32* PanderingToTheBase: Thanks to FirstInstallmentWins meaning that most people that ever watched the anime remember ''Duel Monsters'' most, the card game in later years began revamping old archetypes like the Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes White Dragon with new cards to keep them relevant to the modern metagame.
33* PeripheryDemographic: Since it's been out of style with little kids since about 2004, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s current fandom is composed almost entirely of teenagers and young adults for its surprisingly complex and layered storytelling that younger audiences may not be able to grasp.
34* PlayAlongMeme: Pot of Greed (which allows its player to draw two cards from their deck) is explained in full almost every single time it's played. Fans like to joke that [[ViewersAreGoldfish they really are that forgetful]] and pretend they can't remember what the card does without assistance.
35* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Hand-in-hand with EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame. The anime/manga fanbase and the card game fanbase are worlds apart in their interests in the franchise.
36* SelfFanservice: It's very easy to find cheesecake (and pretty well drawn, too!) of the Dark Magician Girl in sexy poses. Other female monsters get a share of the spotlight sometimes. As for the main casts of the anime, the female leads have such scenes in craptons... though given all of them were ''already'' [[MsFanservice fanservice girls]] in skimpy outfits in their respective series, this does not surprise at all.
37* TooGoodToLast: The uncut, uncensored English dub and Western DVD releases. They were very well-received by older anime fans at the time, but were heavily overshadowed by the success of the standard, kid-oriented edit with preteen audiences, and the dub/release only lasted a few episodes.
38[[/folder]]
39
40!!''Duel Monsters''
41
42[[folder:Both continuities]]
43* {{Adorkable}}: Serenity/Shizuka's shy, cute, and plays games. If her appearances in Dungeon Dice Monsters and Nightmare Troubador are any indication, she definitely checks out as such.
44* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: How much of Yami Bakura is Zorc and how much is Thief King Bakura is a hotly-debated topic among the fandom, as well as if any parts of them are taken from Ryou's personality, given their shared love of role-playing games. ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarksideOfDimensions'' makes this even more confusing, as [[spoiler:the Ring possesses Aigami and Mani post-series after Bakura and Zorc are dead]]. The manga also has lines that imply the Ring corrupted Ryou's normal personality instead of Yami Bakura possessing him, but that's before the Egypt arc where his past is revealed.
45* AlternateSelfShipping:
46** There are ships for Bakura and "Ryo", and Marik and "Malik", fanon names for the evil and good sides of the characters.
47** Kaiba and Set (his past self) is a popular ship.
48* AmericansHateTingle: Haga (Weevil) is quite popular in Japan, but the Western audience doesn't like him too much for his cheating methods, and regards him as annoying. His ear-splitting dub voice doesn't help.
49* AngstWhatAngst: Dark Yugi/Yami's reaction to learning that he's a deceased spirit and that everyone he used to know is long dead is remarkably cavalier - a dry quip and little else. WordOfGod says the reason he was so Penalty Game-happy on his initial release was because the long imprisonment drove him towards madness, but he never alludes to it himself, though Yugi speculates he must have been lonely.
50* AntiClimaxBoss: In the final arc, the Pharaoh and Seto's battle in both continuities is resolved extremely quickly when Kisara stops Akhenaden from possessing Seto.
51* ArcFatigue: In both versions, Battle City is the longest story arc, lasting sixty episodes in the anime and thirteen volumes in the manga. Not only is it long, but the finals in particular proceed at a crawl, taking up a third of that length in both the anime and manga even though only three duels (four in the anime) occur in that time period. By contrast, Duelist Kingdom and the Memory World moved at a much more brisk pace. The anime makes Battle City seem even longer with the first half of Season 3 abruptly halting the story arc altogether for the Virtual World FillerArc.
52* AssPull:
53** It was established that Pegasus's Millennium Eye can read the mind of his opponents, and that it was able to be stopped by Yugi and Yami switching minds. Then Yugi passes out through the strain of the Shadow Game, and Pegasus could read Yami's mind. Yugi's friends, who are currently outside of the Shadow Game, stop Pegasus's mind-reading powers with ThePowerOfFriendship giving them a psychic link to Yugi, which is never brought up or used again.
54** How Ra is finally defeated. In the manga, it's established that destruction effects don't work on Ra, but [[spoiler:Dimension Magic/Magical Dimension, an ordinary Spell card, is able to destroy it. This is right after Ra demonstrates immunity to Obelisk's Soul Energy Max, because apparently it's such a high-ranked card even Obelisk and Osiris/Slifer cannot use their effects on it. So, the other God Cards don't work, but a normal Spell card does. Sure.]] The anime tries to step around this by [[spoiler:having Yugi use a different card, Ragnarok, which is implied to negate any destruction negation effects, preventing Ra's immunity from protecting it. However, not only was the existence of the card itself not foreshadowed, but it was an anime only card specifically made to justify Ra's defeat.]] So it just makes a different AssPull in the end.
55** It's often an explicit power to be able to draw, or even create whole cloth, the cards needed to win. Dark Yugi has that as his main power for the final duel with his memories restored.
56** Gilford The Lightning's existence in Jonouchi's/Joey's deck. It is explicitly mentioned multiple times that Red-Eyes B. Dragon is his strongest and rarest card, so for him to pull out a previously unmentioned monster card that is both more powerful than Red-Eyes, and has a nifty effect just so he could counter Yami Marik's attack lock, fits this trope to a T. At best, you could surmise the Rare Hunters put it into his deck for his duel with Yugi.
57** While exploring the Pharaoh's tomb, Yugi's grandpa was shot in the back and left for dead, barely hanging onto a ledge. Somehow, the Pharaoh--who was still a spirit trapped in the Puzzle at this point--pulled him up and apparently healed him, as the wound isn't brought up again.
58** Dark Marik's existence. The whole of Battle City arc set the normal Marik Ishtar up as an evil bastard, with a complex character, being a threat to the entire cast, and a solid motivation. Then in the finals comes this even-more-evil alter-ego out of nowhere. He's twice the bastard Marik was... and that's about it. His motivation comes down to rubbing how evil he is into other people's faces, then laughing maniacally. He also takes credit for Marik's crimes and was ''really'' responsible for killing his father, as if they couldn't justify a HeelFaceTurn any other way.[[note]]Though Marik's belief that the Pharaoh had killed his father was similarly ridiculous.[[/note]]
59* AwesomeEgo: Seto Kaiba ran with this trope, from being both a TeenGenius AND GradeSchoolCEO with skills and rare and powerful cards to match, and the colossal ego that comes with it all.
60* BadassDecay: Insector Haga/Weevil and Dinosaur Ryuzaki/Rex are introduced as two of the best duelists around, enough to take first and second at the regional championships. They then proceed to lose every duel they fight against our heroes.
61* BaseBreakingCharacter:
62** Seto Kaiba. Fans are equally divided as to whether he should or shouldn't win against Yugi, whether or not his abusive past excuses/explains everything negative he does, whether the story and other characters are biased against him or if Yugi and his friends are right, and whether or not the Mind Crush was necessary for him to heal or a plot device to make him not evil. This even crops up in-story to some degree, with Jonouchi/Joey ''hating'' Seto, Anzu/Tea chiding him for saying whatever he wants and not caring about what others have gone through, and both Yugis seeing him as a rival and friend. The anime cranks this up by giving him a lot more screen time to the point where he's a SpotlightStealingSquad, leading the fanbase to argue whether or not he deserves the extended role. His obsession with wanting to beat Yami Yugi/Atem also has divided thoughts as it either gives Kaiba a realistic flaw given his stepfather's abuse of him to stand above all of his opponents, or it makes Kaiba look like the least developed character of the cast given that he never moves on from this obsession despite that the narrative says that it would be best for him if he did and the fact that he still continues to hold that obsession at the end of ''[[Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions The Darkside of Dimensions ]]''. It's taken even further in the English dub of the anime where he gets hit with some AdaptationalJerkass by downplaying his redeeming qualities and cranking up his pettiness to sometimes ridiculous levels.[[note]]In the Japanese version, he allows the Rare Hunter with the counterfeit Exodia cards to cheat because he sees Yugi as a WorthyOpponent who he knows wouldn't lose to someone like that. The dub changes this to letting him cheat to spite Yugi for having beaten him with Exodia in the past. Another case is in the Battle City finals, with [[spoiler:Jonouchi pretty much beating Marik but blacking out from the pain of the Shadow Game before he can declare the winning move; the original gave Kaiba a moment of CharacterDevelopment by having him admit internally that Jonouchi had finally earned some of his respect, while the dub replaces this entirely with a KickTheDog moment of Kaiba changing nothing and just calling him a loser again]][[/note]]
63** Anzu/Tea. She suffers from DieForOurShip courtesy of [[HoYay Yugi x Atem]] [[YaoiFangirl shippers]], who love to give her flack for [[DeadpanSnarker her snarkiness]] and her corny friendship speeches, [[CommonKnowledge despite how rarely she makes them]]. On the other hand, her fans appreciate that despite not being a Duelist, she actually does have many courageous and assertive actions to her name (see CharacterPerceptionEvolution), which became even more apparent in contrast with NeutralFemale [[Anime/YuGiOhZeXal (Ko)tori]] from ''ZEXAL''.
64* BrokenBase: Do you like the manga with the darker, more consistent storyline or the anime with the lighter tone and fun duels? Fans disagree about this often.
65* CargoShip:
66** Seto Kaiba is ''very'' attached to his Blue Eyes White Dragon. At first, it doesn't seem so bad. And then it turns out that [[spoiler:back in ancient Egypt, the Blue Eyes was born from the soul of a woman he loved.]] Of course, it seems like an AuthorsSavingThrow given the lengths he went through, not to mention his penchant for rare and powerful cards, an area in which the dragons were only second to the 3 Egyptian God Cards. And lest we forget, Kaiba was perhaps even more taken with the desire to acquire those.
67** Three words: [[MsFanservice Dark]] [[ImpossiblyLowNeckline Magician Girl]]. By ''far'' the most popular female of the series, even above Anzu, Mai, and Shizuka. And she is frequently seen with [[SexierAlterEgo Dark Yugi]] in ''many'' fanarts and fanfictions. It helps that this relationship is almost an exact parallel to Seto and the Blue-Eyes, with Black Magician Girl being born from the soul of the Pharaoh's closest friend, who gets shipped with him just as much (usually reincarnated as the monster in question).
68** Solomon Muto (Yugi's grandfather) and [[DarkIsNotEvil Black Luster Soldier]] wallpaper, thanks to ''Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series''.
69** Mako Tsunami and '''the ocean''', also caused by ''Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series''.
70* CatharsisFactor:
71** Yugi and Yami Yugi turning the tables on Pegasus' Mind Scan with the Mind Shuffle is the first real progress they make against the previously unstoppable Pegasus.
72** Koji Nagumo is a small-time villain, but after he returns in Battle City having not changed his ways since Yami Yugi beating him, it's very satisfying to see Kaiba turn up and utterly ''crush'' him with Obelisk despite stacking the deck in Nagumo's favor as much as he possibly could.
73* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Compared to [[Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL Kotori]], many fans have softened their opinion towards Anzu/TĂ©a for [[WhatTheHellHero calling out]] Kaiba over his cruel BatmanGambit on Yugi, dueling experienced players (Mai and Otaki) twice and ''winning'' in the anime (granted, the former forfeited despite having the cards needed to win), getting a short character arc about her dancing career, and formulating a few extremely risky gambits when the situation calls for it. ''[[Anime/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsters Capsule Monsters]]'' takes this up a notch, as Anzu knows a lot of historical facts, gets to be a DeadpanSnarker without being overbearing, and has a lot of moments of supporting her friends, including Jonouchi. It helps that she's directly involved in the action, with her Dark Witch being one of the strongest team members initially.
74* CommonKnowledge: Thanks to the anime's openings and most promotional material, it's quite common to see Dark Yugi with his iconic CoatCape in fan works. But interestingly enough, Dark Yugi has only worn his coat as a cape for part of Battle City, and stopped after his duel against a brainwashed Jonouchi (in the manga he wore it before and after his Duel with Yami Marik, though he shed the coat for the duel proper). Even his return in ''GX'' doesn't have it, and while he brought it back for ''Bonds Beyond Time'' and ''Dark Side of Dimensions,'' it was presumably due to how popular it had gotten. In fact, Yuya Sakaki of ''ARC-V'' has actually worn a CoatCape as part of his default outfit moreso than Dark Yugi.
75* CrackPairing:[[https://sites.google.com/site/yugiohshippings/the-list The Official]] [[http://ygo-dm-shippings-list.tumblr.com/list Yu-Gi-Oh Shipping List]] contains all of the 'official' ship names, and it goes up to six-way pairings and crazy combinations of characters, some of whom never interacted at all. It's more surprising when a ship in this fandom ''isn't'' named than when it is.
76* CreepyAwesome:
77** Dark Bakura's more AxCrazy moments are thoroughly enjoyed by his fanbase.
78** Dark Marik is also this, especially when he's dueling.
79** Dark Yugi is this during the Toei anime/"Season 0" and the first several dozen manga chapters of the original series, acting more like an amoral monster from a horror flick until CharacterDevelopment kicks in.
80* DesignatedHero:
81** Even after Seto Kaiba makes a HeelFaceTurn, he commits very cruel and petty acts he is not called out for that go well beyond simply being a jerk. In the original manga, when Jounouchi shows he has not forgiven Kaiba for trying to murder Yugi and his friends in the Death-T arc, Kaiba reacts with mere amusement and Jonouchi is framed as being in the wrong for not [[EasilyForgiven forgiving]] someone who refuses to apologize for attempted murder. Later during the Battle City Arc, Kaiba [[KickTheDog intentionally waits until he is sure Jounouchi has drowned before dropping the key to his chains]], an act which nearly kills Jounouchi, and Kaiba is never called out for.
82*** The anime [[AdaptationalHeroism removes his initial villainy]] and above mentioned KickTheDog that almost kills Jounouchi but keeps him continuing the Battle City finals despite seeing Yami Marik torturing duelists he defeats, which nearly leads to Jounochi's death, caring more about defeating Yugi and obtaining the [[OlympusMons Egyptian God cards]] than the SerialKiller in his tournament. While he does learn to respect Jounouchi, he refuses to openly display it and mocks him after his death against Dark Marik. After the tournament is over, when Kaiba sets explosives to blow up the site of the finals because everyone else spent so much time waiting for him and he did not inform them he had alternate means of escaping, they are nearly killed in the explosion. The only person who calls him out is Jounouchi, and his criticism is PlayedForLaughs, rather than him making a legitimate point about Kaiba disregarding everyone's safety.
83*** The 4Kids dub makes Kaiba far more of a {{Jerkass}} than in the original anime. He is disrespectful towards almost everyone around him, lacking the respect he shows towards Yugi, who still treats Kaiba as a friend and almost never calls him out for his behavior. During Kaiba's rematch with Amelda, rather than logically pointing out how supporting a plan to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt will cause far more children to go through the same pain he did, [[InsaneTrollLogic Kaiba instead berates him for failing to protect his little brother from a warzone despite Amelda being a child at the time]].
84** Shadi arranges for destined bearers of the Millenium Items to find them and for Pegasus to find the tablets of the Egyptian God Cards, making him indirectly responsible for Pegasus' using the Millenium Eye and for the people Pegasus had working creating the Egyptian God Cards dying from the spirits of the monsters attacking them. While he warns Pegasus the God Cards are too dangerous and need to be sealed, Shadi still arranged for them to be created in the first place with his only motive being BecauseDestinySaysSo. All of his actions are aimed at allowing Yami Yugi to regain his memories in the final arc, while withholding that this means entering a recreation of the battle with Zorc, where losing will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
85* DracoInLeatherPants:
86** Kaiba, especially due to the anime. In the manga he was an antagonist at first, stealing the Blue-Eyes White Dragon card and driving others to ruin just to get the other three. After his experience with Death Penalty Games, which were meant to teach him about the heart of the cards, he built a huge death trap to kill Yugi and was fine with killing his grandpa and friends as well. He was still a jerk after his Mind Crush, especially towards Jonouchi. Kaiba gets better when trying to save Mokuba and empathizing with Ishizu in Battle City, but he still isn't a nice person on the whole. He became a BreakoutCharacter who underwent AdaptationalHeroism with the anime casting him as an anti-hero along with Yugi and Jonouchi, and he is often seen as a key hero alongside the rest of the cast despite still being a jerk. Being TallDarkAndSnarky and qualifying for EvilIsCool and AwesomeEgo also play a part in this, as does his abusive childhood with Gozaburo Kaiba explaining some of his more extreme actions. The more extreme fans fall under both cases. In the former case, they believe he is completely justified in his cynicism and actions that were mean-spirited and even unhelpful to others in danger because of said childhood (and later, being targeted by Pegasus), and accuse Yugi and his friends of being preachy and thoughtless jerks instead who care more about Duel Monsters, even though all of this except for the preachy part applies more to Kaiba.
87** Dark Bakura and Dark Marik are ridiculously popular with legions of fangirls, and are often shipped with each other or their alter-egos. Apparently, they missed that both of them are both sociopathic murderers who repeatedly try to kill the heroes and each other and care nothing about their alter-egos except as pawns to be used against the heroes.
88* EnsembleDarkHorse:
89** Seto Kaiba was originally intended to be a VillainOfTheWeek. The Duel Monsters card game brought him back as a recurring antagonist, and he got more and more popular from there when he became a hero, to the point that the manga-based ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' movie was originally all about him. The card game itself was only meant to be featured in a single story but got so popular it featured heavily in the manga and they based the second anime adaptation around it, and subsequent series have focused entirely on the card game.
90** "Bandit" Keith Howard was a secondary villain in the Duelist Kingdom arc, was killed off in the manga, and disappeared in the anime, but he's popular among many fans ''and'' Takahashi himself stated he's one of his favorite antagonists in the series next to Kaiba. This might have contributed to his large role in the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! R'' spinoff and ''Reshef of Destruction'' video game. Being rather unique among the villains in the series, in addition to how excellently he plays off Jonouchi contributed to this.
91** The Paradox Brothers are very fondly remembered among the Player Killers, from their [[BashBrothers fun]] [[DungeonBypass gimmick]] to the [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem genuinely exciting challenge]] they put both Yugi and Jonouchi through. This popularity allowed them to return in ''GX'' as opponents for Jaden and Syrus in another fairly entertaining Duel, as well as becoming the first UnexpectedCharacter in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks.''[[note]]After Pegasus and Yami Bakura.[[/note]]
92** Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman only appeared in two duels in the final arc of the anime and manga, and their real life cards were rather awful. However, they remained popular for being cards solely associated with the normal Yugi instead of Yami Yugi, and Silent Magician got a lot of attention from fanartists for her attractive design. The two became a proper archetype in the New 10s with new support cards and variants of the two themselves that better parallel their effects in the anime and manga and are much more viable to base a deck around.
93** Gearfried the Iron Knight is a pretty lackluster card in real life with a downright detrimental effect.[[note]]Outside of the notorious infinite loop with Butterfly Dagger - Elma and to a lesser degree being an easy trigger for Smoke Grenade of the Thief's discard effect.[[/note]] However, it is key to one of Jonochi/Joey's most memorable victories against Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood. In the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! R'' manga, Jonouchi got a Fusion of Gearfried, and in Season 4 of the anime Gearfried got an upgraded form with a short backstory given to him by Joey. Gearfried went on to become an entire series of Warriors with different themes given to him, several of which are quite good for competitive play. And he hasn't left his roots entirely either; Gearfried got a Red-Eyes themed retrain (and Red-Eyes got a new Fusion clearly meant to synergize with it), and the manga-only Fusion from ''R'' got released for real in 2021.
94* EvenBetterSequel: While "Duelist Kingdom" is already very beloved, pretty much the whole fandom agrees on "Battle City" being the best arc of the series.
95** This also applies to the anime itself, albeit as a successor and not a sequel of sorts. Its actually the second anime based on the manga produced, the first one being produced by a different company and only covering the chapters up to Monster World. Once that anime wrapped up, NAS bought the rights to produce their own anime, and the rest is history.
96* FanficFuel: The period of time between the Battle City arc and the Millennium World arc is often abused by fans as an indefinite amount of time where a number of new stories can be placed. It helps that even ''official'' material, such as the anime's original arcs, the [=4Kids=]-commissioned ''Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight'' and ''Anime/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsters'', and the ''Manga/YuGiOhR'' manga spinoff do this as well.
97* FandomRivalry: There are inter-fandom rivalries between people who like the manga, people who like the anime, and people who like the dub, as well as fans of the individual anime series. Character-based rivalries also spring up, like Jonouchi fans that dislike Kaiba or Kaiba fans who dislike Jonouchi and Anzu.
98* {{Fanon}}: Some of the most widespread interpretations of fans are the relationships between Yugi, Bakura, Marik, and their alter-egos. The fan term "hikari" is used to refer to them while the alter-egos are referred to as the "yamis", and there are many fanfics where, for no established reason, the yamis and hikaris are able to exist independently of each other. Dark Marik's grouping with Dark Bakura and Dark Yugi is itself a bit of fanon, because Dark Marik is not a spirit, he's Marik's split-personality (a mistranslation in the English manga says he was around for 1000 years, which adds to the confusion). Some fans depict Dark Marik as being tied to the Millennium Rod as the other two are to the Ring and Puzzle. Other fans distinguish between Marik, Bakura, and their alter-egos, by referring to the "hikaris" as Malik and Ryou, and the "yamis" as Marik and Bakura -- Marik is just a JapaneseRanguage variant of Malik (Malik being an actual Middle Eastern and African name), and Ryou Bakura is the character's full name.
99* FanonDiscontinuity:
100** Most Jonouchi fans, especially ones that don't ship him with Kaiba, tend to dislike the anime due to him being more of a ButtMonkey, more prone to insults that mostly come from Kaiba, the infamous dog suit business, and the fact that he gets less importance comparing to Kaiba.
101** Some manga fans don't like the anime due to some changes and the large amount of {{Filler}}.
102** And fans that ''do'' like the anime tend to ignore the controversial Season 4 filler and the Grand Prix arc.
103* FirstInstallmentWins: The franchise is still going, but while the sequels have their fans, they never quite reached the same level of popularity as the original series, both the manga and the anime.
104* HarsherInHindsight:
105** A lot of the duel moves concerning the Blue-Eyes and the Dark Magician, once the Memory World showed us their history. For example, in his duel with Pegasus Kaiba has one of his Blue-Eyes captured and turned into a Toon, and Kaiba eventually has a second Blue-Eyes destroy it. Pegasus mocks that as loyal as Kaiba is to the Blue-Eyes, they don't return the sentiment, and he seizes the second as well. Now think back to Kisara and Priest Seto, and what the Toon Blue-Eyes could symbolize -- [[spoiler:Pegasus is kidnapping Kaiba's girlfriend and driving her insane to turn her against him]].
106** Pandora/Arkana tries to win by [[NightmareFuel extracting his Dark Magician's soul]] with his Ectoplasmer magic card, and firing it at Yugi. Yugi's Dark Magician is affected by the same magic card because they have the same name, and essentially [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] for the Pharaoh by shielding him from the attack. Mahad(o) promised to always protect the Pharaoh by becoming the Dark Magician after his defeat by Yami Bakura. It makes a whole new context for whenever villains gloat about destroying Dark Yugi's favorite monster.
107** Yugi and Atem's final duel, while already sad, becomes even worse when ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' reveals Aigami and the Plana's powers activated upon the Pharaoh's departure and Kaiba became determined to find and reassemble the Puzzle, leading to the events of the movie. It turns what was a bittersweet, powerful moment for Yugi—defeating his other self and standing on his own—into a tragic one, because in doing so Yugi almost doomed the world without even realizing it.
108** Ryota's backstory of losing his father at sea is eerily prophetic in light of the circumstances of Kazuki Takahashi's passing. The moments where Jonouchi dives into a body of water for Yugi (particularly in Battle City to save him from drowning in Marik’s death trap) also mirror how Takahashi was later reported to have gone into the water to help save lives from a rip current.
109* HilariousInHindsight:
110** In an early episode of the English dub of the anime Jonouchi screams "[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Hasan chop!]]" An actual character named Hasan would show up and play a pivotal role in the last arc of the series.
111** In the manga, Pegasus kills Bandit Keith by causing him to hallucinate that his hand is a gun and making him commit suicide by pointing at his own head. Years later, [=4Kids=] would edit characters holding guns into characters pointing menacingly at each other. Yes, Bandit Keith was the first casualty of [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries Invisible Guns.]]
112** The widely reviled Exodia deck in the real life card game was used in-series by a generic Rare Hunter, making it even more satisfying to see him get demolished by Dark Yugi. Even better, Marik calls him [[TakeThatScrappy the weakest duelist in the organization.]]
113** The franchise basically predicted the rise of gamer culture.
114** When the Pharaoh and Bakura have a battle in ancient Egypt, their monsters battle one another while the duelists are riding horses. Many fans humorously declare this the first Turbo Duel, literally two series (and In-Universe more than 3000/5000 Years) before they were formally introduced. Even better, the ''5D's'' manga presents this as exactly how Turbo Duels were fought in the past.
115** The Winged Dragon of Ra is first revealed in the form of a metallic gold ball that unfolds into the actual monster. [[Franchise/{{Bakugan}} A competing franchise]] would one day come to use a similar idea for all its monsters.
116** The original French run of the manga held a card-designing contest for readers, with the winning prize going to a card [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yu_gi_oh_tome_37_104.jpg based on the smiling face drawn by Anzu as a symbol of friendship]]. In 2015, [[https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Symbol_of_Friendship an actual card was released]] based on the very same symbol.
117** In the dub of episode 37 of the first season, Yami Bakura declared that he wanted a new host instead of Bakura (in the original version, he was after the comatose Mokuba for a special key he had) and Tristan initially thought he was after him. Come the final season, Yami Bakura ''does'' end up taking over Tristan's body.
118** ''Anime/BeybladeMetalFusion'' would reveal in a [[MemeticMutation much memed]] scene that Moses used a Beyblade to part the Red Sea. It's since become a recurring in-joke that according to anime, [[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus]] was a fight between [[CoolVsAwesome Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Beyblades]].
119* HoYay: [[HoYay/YuGiOh Goes without saying]].
120* IAmNotShazam: While the franchise and the card game are called ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', InUniverse the game the characters are playing is ''Duel Monsters''. Also, while [[KingOfGames Yugioh]] is one of Dark Yugi's titles, both he and Yugi Muto have almost never been called that, despite similar names.
121* InformedWrongness: Any duelist who relies on sacrificing monsters, such as Rebecca or Arkana, tends to receive a mouthful from Yugi for not respecting their cards. Except this is a CardBattleGame, which is all about making monsters kill each other to destroy the opponent, and he's lecturing them for using legitimate mechanics in the game. Also, [[{{Hypocrite}} he himself has regularly sacrificed monsters to Catapult Turtle and for Tribute Summoning]], which makes it similarly jarring that his use of the former was supposed to be seen as a sign of the Orichalcos's malign influence. Slightly less egregious in the case of Arkana, who shaved his cards, and repeatedly called his cards servants or slaves, at least in the manga.
122* IronWoobie: Anyone who isn't visibly broken by what they've been through, since almost ''every'' character has a tragic backstory to some degree. Yugi and Jonouchi are prime examples.
123* ItWasHisSled:
124** Can you believe that Dark Yugi being a Pharaoh was actually a plot twist in the manga? Also, the Pharaoh's real name being [[spoiler:Atem]]. While a big reveal at the time, it's not uncommon nowadays for people to refer to him by that name instead of "Yami" or "The Pharaoh."
125** Dark Marik's very ''existence'' was originally a huge reveal. Not so much anymore.
126* JerkassWoobie: Kaiba, Pegasus, and for a more extreme version, normal Marik. You'll also be hard-pressed not to feel at least a little bad for Pandora/Arkana.
127* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/YuGiOh here]].
128* MemeticBadass:
129** Yami Yugi, ''especially'' prior to Duelist Kingdom kicking in due to the creative and well-done Shadow Games he played to utterly wreck his enemies, though that's not to say he lost any of his quota afterwards. In the anime, he becomes this after the first episode.
130** Kaiba get this treatment often as well, and ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' only amplified it. He tends to utterly flatten his opponents if he isn't emotional at the time, and his ridiculous wealth led to a memorable scene where he bought a sports car on the spot during ''Waking the Dragons''. His peaks are his duels with Ishizu and Zigfried.
131** Yugi is actually the most notable case due to his defeat of Atem in the Ceremonial Battle, who was pretty much the most powerful duelist at the time. Fans tend to see him as the best duelist out of all the series' protagonists, and ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' increasing his badassery only helps.
132** In later years ''Tea'' began to get this in some circles as RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap kicked in. Fans took note that she only dueled three times, but she won all three of them, so technically she's undefeated, a feat none of the boys can claim. The fact that her opponents are Joey (before he got tutored by Yugi's grandfather and got his iconic cards), Mai (who threw the duel and let her win), and one of the Big Five (who as a whole were not as threatening as the story treated them), adds to the effect, with those notes in parentheses being minor details that don't detract from her record.
133* MemeticHair: Yugi's and Saruwatari's/Kemo's.
134* MemeticLoser: Hiroto Honda/Tristan Taylor was always the least prominent of Yugi's friends, and he fell noticeably OutOfFocus in the manga once the series began its full switch to being about card games... and that's terrible news, when that part of the series formed the basis for the show's most famous adaptation. Consequently, he never Duels even once in the manga, and manages only one in the anime, during which he suffers a decidedly unimpressive loss. Due to this, the fandom has a tendency to joke about him being TheLoad, not helped by both major adaptations [[AdaptationalComicRelief having used him for comic relief]]. Video games have only further run with that interpretation, where he's consistently depicted as one of the weakest opponents, sometimes bordering on ZeroEffortBoss.
135* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: "Bandit" Keith is generally considered amusing... ''in America!'' The freaking [[WordOfGod creator]] Kazuki Takahashi mentioned that he liked Bandit Keith in the US Shonen Jump's second issue.
136* MisaimedFandom:
137** Various Kaiba fans, to the point that some think he was right to threaten suicide to win instead of considering other options. Jonouchi often appears to be reminding the reader of the hurt Seto has caused and never taken responsibility for, the sorest spot being Death-T. A troubled past alone does not a [[TheWoobie Woobie]] make. Especially when you're one of the top-ranked duelists AND the richest man in the world, and tend to be pretty apathetic towards other people's suffering at times. This is most prominent in his anime portrayal, where he was softened, his backstory was more elaborate and tragic, and he had several exclusive arcs to himself. Also, fans who consider him the true top duelist in the series miss that he's a {{Deconstruction}} of both StopHavingFunGuys, [[IWorkAlone loners]] and PrivilegedRival types. His AwesomeEgo doesn't help matters in the least. He's been able to get by on his own and take care of Mokuba mainly because he's rich, intelligent, and can afford any card, and hasn't needed any help because of this. At the same time though, he has become cold and arrogant, and it's that hubris that leads to him losing to Yami in Battle City, when Yami correctly predicts and undoes his finishing move. His CharacterDevelopment where he promises to Mokuba that he will bury his hatred and build a theme park open to orphans, and (anime-only) acknowledges Yugi as the King of Games for his impressive takedown of the three Egyptian Gods, is ignored by these fans.
138** Thief King Bakura/Dark/Yami Bakura as well. Fans have seen him as trying to avenge the genocide of his village, that he was a victim all along due to Zorc's influence/the massacre, being a crusader for social justice, or that his backstory ''excuses'' his actions, rather than explaining them. In actuality, he doesn't care if he gets revenge on the wrong person or if he hurts other innocent people. The anime has him outright saying he doesn't care about the dead villagers, the manga had rumors of him murdering ''hundreds'' in a blood festival and killing civilians in a bar with shadow magic, and both versions had him attack innocent civilians to lure the Pharaoh out, so it's arguably all an excuse to summon Zorc while being as LaughingMad as possible. And when he ''does'' find the person who ordered the Items' creation, he turns him to his side rather than kill him--and in the manga, Bakura made him part of the game from the start.
139* MisBlamed: There are some people who complained about the many differences between the manga/anime duels and the Konami card game. Some would even say that the characters make up the rules and card effects all the time. In reality, the manga/anime rules and card effects are the original ones. See OlderThanTheyThink.
140* {{Moe}}: Cyndia/Cecelia, especially as a child.
141* NarmCharm:
142** Half of the charm in this [[SeriousBusiness increasingly outlandish]] romp of a series is made up by the sheer levels of [[ChewingTheScenery scenery-chewing]] of the dialog.
143** And then there's the concept of the series itself--ancient Egyptian magic is brought back to life in the 20th century and the reincarnations of the ancient priests and warlords who controlled that magic battle each other to determine the fate of the world once again... by using games as a medium through which to channel their powers.
144** Dark Marik's crazy faces. The fans love it when he's doing it.
145* NeverLiveItDown:
146** Anzu/TĂ©a for her friendship speeches. In the manga and anime Yugi and Jonouchi made the most speeches, not her. It's not helped that in the dub (at the start of the "Waking the Dragons" arc), she mentions the friendship speeches, nor does ''Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series'' [[CharacterExaggeration making this her defining character trait]].
147** Mai's on-screen win-loss record, making her dueling skill appear to be an InformedAbility to many, even though she always came within one move of victory at the very least, and against the most prominent duelists to boot and manages to net a few wins in the anime. Part of this is due to [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the Abridged Series]] turning it into a RunningGag, especially losing to Anzu.[[note]]In the actual series, she had the means to win, but decided to just give her the victory for her sheer guts in standing up to her for Yugi.[[/note]]
148** Yami Yugi's preference for flashy silver after the scene where he advises Yugi to dress up more for his date with Anzu. Also, his fondness for setting things on fire despite only pulling this move twice as a penalty game in the first manga, and arguably only doing it because he was using what he had to work with in his environment against his enemy (an early manga scene in vol.2 has him electrocute a gang who were about to use stun guns to kill Jonouchi, but this goes largely forgotten).
149* OlderThanTheyThink:
150** Some think that the anime or manga is based on the card game. In reality the manga predates everything, the card game was loosely based on the manga, and the anime started about a year after the card game, with the game being played in the anime being essentially an odd hybrid of the two rulesets.
151** Believe it or not, Yami Yugi was actually taller than Yugi in the initial chapters of the manga before Takahashi evened out their heights, rather than this idea being exclusive to both anime.
152* OnceOriginalNowCommon: Yugi using Exodia to win an otherwise unwinnable duel against Kaiba was suspenseful at the time the relevant chapters/episodes were released. Since it became a SignatureScene of the franchise (especially with it being the winning move and iconic scene of the first episode of the NAS Anime), making Exodia one of the most popular, recognizable monsters, most of the original tension of Yugi desperately stalling out until he gets all five pieces is lost as a result.
153* PopularityPolynomial: While not to the extent of ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' went through a similar evolution of being ''insanely'' popular with kids in the mid-2000s, losing its luster after a couple of years, gaining a large, fervent fanbase of adults who [[NostalgiaFilter grew up with the franchise as kids]], and [[PanderingToTheBase revisiting characters, cards and concepts from the original series to tap into their nostalgia]].
154* RonTheDeathEater:
155** A lot of Kaiba fans have seen Yugi and his gang of friends as this, either for finding their friendship spiel lame in comparison to his angst and love when [[DeadpanSnarker he snarks on them]] even when he gets to the point of a HannibalLecture, or that they're in fact just a bunch of jerks who don't care to understand [[TheWoobie what he's been through]]. This is most prominent among fans of the anime, where Kaiba's character was softened, his backstory was more elaborate, and he had several exclusive arcs to himself.
156** Mai gets hit with this apparently due solely to her [[MemeticMutation memetically enormous breasts]], and [[DieForOurShip being in the way of slash pairings for Jonouchi]], or how her character was handled during the Doma arc, which was stated in the show because of the MindRape she suffered, leading her to [[BrainwashedAndCrazy the dark side]].
157** Fans of Thief King Bakura and/or Marik tend to paint the Pharaoh as in the wrong, being a petty tyrant, ''actually'' authorizing the Millennium Items' creation, or blaming the Pharaoh/his ''entire'' family for the massacre when it was orchestrated by Akhenaden, who obtained permission from his brother, who didn't know of the terrible cost that would be paid to create the Items.
158* TheShipsMotor: The practice in ''Anime/YuGiOh'' fics of giving Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura, and/or Yami Marik their own bodies to make shipping them with their human hosts easier is so widespread that it's rare to find a fic that actually sticks to the canon portrayal of them as SharingABody with their hosts.
159* StoicWoobie: Dark Yugi and Mai in the manga, less so in the anime.
160* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: This trope got shot through the roof with Yugi's friend group whose name isn't Jonouchi and Mai due to the fact that they never received any significant plotline or major character development after the series switched gear into card game. It's even more notable when their introductory arcs and storylines from the manga are skipped and glossed over in the anime. It's saying something that the ''anime-only'' arcs and scenes added to the anime managed to find better usage for their character than the manga.
161* ToughActToFollow: The Battle City Tournament is regarded as the highlight of the original series for its impressive duels and character arcs. While the Millenium World arc that concludes the series is still considered a step up from the [[FillerArc anime only arcs]], it still isn't seen as living up to the bar set by Battle City thanks to its rushed pace.
162* TooCoolToLive: It wouldn't be very interesting for Yugi to spend the whole series winning with Exodia, so Weevil Underwood throws the cards off the boat on the way to Duelist Kingdom, rendering Exodia unusable.
163* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: Zorc's infamous dragon crotch, which was made due to the author's illness. The bunkoban manga revised it into a belt, but the anime went with the original portrayal, furthering its infamy.
164* VanillaProtagonist: Yugi is the only duelist without a significant quirk. He's not the Blue Eyes White Dragon guy, or the bug guy or the dino guy or even the gambling card guy. His own alter ego has that "age old pharaoh" thing going on. While he does have a few outstanding quirks in the manga, their not as much as other characters. There's a tendency for cute or toy-like monsters to be included in his deck, but this seems to be just as much pragmatism as a personal choice since many are useful in some way.
165* ViewerGenderConfusion: One of Bakura and Otogi/Duke Devlin's fangirls looks like a boy, and can easily be mistaken as one.
166* {{Wangst}}: Kaiba, after losing Battle City to Yugi, plans to [[spoiler:''blow up the island'' and end the tournament prematurely because he lost when he planned to win and surpass the memory of his stepfather Gozaburo by doing so]]. The anime makes this worse, as he'd defeated Gozaburo in the previous arc, albeit it was written before Kaiba's reason for holding the tournament was revealed. The dub mitigates this somewhat as [[spoiler:Kaiba's planning to leave, but doesn't mention blowing up the island until Yami Marik is defeated]].
167* TheWoobie: [[Woobie/YuGiOh Enough for a page.]]
168[[/folder]]
169
170[[folder:Manga only]]
171* AdaptationDisplacement: The [[Manga/YuGiOh original manga]] has been eclipsed by the anime in peoples' mind, even to the point that the next two series, ''GX'' and ''5D's'', were [[AnimeFirst born before their mangas]].
172* {{Adorkable}}: Hanasaki is a shy, timid kid who loves comic books, and in cosplay mode he becomes a LargeHam.
173* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Bakura fought against Dark Bakura in his first appearance, shattering his own soul to stop him. Afterward, he never defied him again and became fond and protective of the Ring. After Battle City, despite never believing Dark Bakura had turned good and knowing all Dark Bakura had done to him and his friends, he happily reclaims the Ring and puts it on. [[https://thewittyphantom.tumblr.com/post/145498813643/dailycupofcreativity-alrighty-fans-listen-up Many fans]] have wondered just what was going on with manga Bakura.
174* AssPull:
175** At Death-T, Kaiba accidentally hires Anzu Mazaki, one of his own classmates, to work at the Stardust Shooter game at the exact time Yugi arrives.
176** In the Monster World arc Yugi and his friends are stuck in a DeathTrap, the only escape from which is for Dark Yugi to roll one specific number using two 10-sided dice. He has three chances, but already used up two of them without success. In other words, there is only a one percent chance that they will get out alive. Of course, on [[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt the last possible turn, he just happens to roll the exact number]], and Dark Bakura decides not to cheat even though he never specified which was the right number to begin with. [[note]]It is possible that any "doubles" number that fit the slab would have worked, so that Bakura couldn't cheat, but this still gives the heroes only a 5% chance of success.[[/note]]
177** After the pier duel, Kaiba waits until he's sure Jonouchi drowned to drop the key in the water to free him. The key somehow goes straight down, and despite being chained to an anchor that's dropped in the ocean Jonouchi is able to grab something that small, free himself, and swim up without losing consciousness or sinking too deeply.
178* BadassDecay: Honda, who goes from a cool, active character to more of a cheerleader for the others by the Duelist Kingdom arc, and then went on to rarely appear in the manga's Battle City arc before stepping back into his cheerleader role during the finals and in the Memory World.
179* BizarroEpisode: Chapter 21 of the manga takes place [[BreatherEpisode between Trial of the Mind and Death-T]], has the characters act about five years younger than their ages, and there is no Shadow Game--in fact, it's the only standalone chapter where Dark Yugi does not appear. Despite the lack of a Shadow Game, the digital pets [[InexplicablyAwesome are implied to be alive and sentient in some way]].
180* CommonKnowledge:
181** The manga starts out dark and bleak with Dark Yugi as a VillainProtagonist, only for it to get much lighter when the card game comes around... except Dark Yugi was always an AntiHero (just with more extreme methods that are toned down through character development) who was protective of his friends. The early chapters had many lighthearted as well as dark moments, and Duelist Kingdom and onward did not tone down the darkness, but instead used different methods of expressing it.
182** It's common to see many view Dark Yugi starting out as a homicidal murderer, but he never directly kills anyone. 777 lights himself on fire after dropping his cigarette when he sighs, Goro is stated to have survived the test tube exploding in his face, Hirutani and his electrocuted thugs return in a later chapter, and Imori initiated the Shadow Game that took his soul.
183* EscapistCharacter: Yugi/Dark Yugi was meant to be this, as an invincible gaming hero was something a lot of kids wanted to be.
184* FanficFuel: A month passed between the Millennium World and the ceremonial battle, leaving ample room for fanfiction.
185* GrowingTheBeard: The Death-T arc, marking Kaiba's [[BreakoutVillain ascension to]] BigBad and Yugi finally revealing the existence of Dark Yugi to his friends. From then on, things got less episodic and more plot-oriented.
186* HarsherInHindsight: The early chapters of the manga focused on Dark Yugi challenging bullies and assholes unfortunate enough to target his friends to Shadow Games, and not all of them suffered from MindRape, like the escaped convict or Goro, who both suffered from KillItWithFire. The latter in particular is disturbing after school shootings like Columbine. Adding to it was that before Dark Yugi was revealed to be a Pharaoh, it looked like Dark Yugi was either a split personality or an extension of Yugi's personality.
187* HilariousInHindsight: Right before Death-T begins, Jonouchi gets challenged to a street fight. It's especially funny since [[Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa both of]] [[Creator/HirokiTakahashi his seiyuus]] have since gone on to voice [[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]].
188** In the Viz translation, Atem's final words to Seto after passing the throne to him include [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump "Make Egypt great again!"]].
189* MoralEventHorizon:
190** Seto Kaiba crosses it when he [[spoiler:subjects his own brother to a virtual Penalty Game after he loses to Yugi]] during Death-T. You could argue that Death-T in the first place crossed this, especially when Kaiba subjects Grandpa to a Penalty Game that hospitalizes him, and doesn't care that Honda's infant cousin is in danger when Honda volunteers to go with them, but those could at least be explained as revenge. What he did to [[spoiler:Mokuba]] has no such excuse. The reason this counts as this trope is because he's fundamentally a different person after Dark Yugi Mind Crushes him.
191* NeverLiveItDown: Yami (indirectly) lighting 777 on fire is an infamous moment and a prominent example of the manga's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. Many paint Yami in the early chapters as a JudgeJuryAndExecutioner vigilante, except few people have ([[AmbiguousSituation very likely]]) died from his Shadow Games: the aforementioned 777 (lit on fire), Goro (blown up) and Imori (lost his soul). Everybody else was subjected to MindRape.
192* SignatureScene: The most famous non-Duel Monsters Shadow Game is the one where Dark Yugi sets the convict on fire with a lighter and Russian vodka.
193* UnintentionallySympathetic: Goro Inogashira, one of the {{Jerkass}} of the week that ends up the victim of one of Dark Yugi's Shadow Games. While the guy is a colossal jerk who destroyed a stand and beat up people who can't fight back[[note]]He and his friends trample on Yugi, he knocks out Jonouchi while the latter was stuck in a life-sized ''Pop-Up Pirate'' barrel[[/note]], his punishment is a massive case of DisproportionateRetribution. He gets blown up by Dark Yugi. Especially when people worse than him got lighter punishments, such as Kokurano, who attempted both murder and rape and only got exposed as a PhonyPsychic.
194* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
195** Hirutani, who was the only villain from the Shadow Games arc aside from Kaiba to have a recurring role, and his last appearance implied that it wouldn't be the last time we'd see him. It would have been interesting to see him as Jonouchi's personal rival, but once the series focused on Duel Monsters full-time, he was written out of the series.
196** Ryo Bakura (the normal one) and Ryuji Otogi don't get much attention after their initial arcs, despite being the only members of the group other than Yugi to be naturally good at games in general. Ryo is shown to have good deck-building skills when it comes to Duel Monsters and is taken control of by Dark Bakura to become a participant of the Battle City tournament, but Dark Bakura is the one that actually duels. With Ryuji Otogi, not only does he sit out of the Battle City tournament as a mere spectator, he's not present in the Shadow RPG, and neither of them play ''any'' games after their introductions.
197* {{Woolseyism}}:
198** The Viz translation sometimes added completely new lines, such as Yami Yugi describing Mystic Box's effect in a very grandiose way compared to the original, where he described its effects matter-of-factly. When the anime used the original translation, this led some people to think they watered down his personality compared to the manga [[MisBlamed when the lines weren't there originally to begin with]].
199** In the Monster World arc, Bakura tries telling his friends to leave, but Dark Bakura takes control. In the English version, Dark Bakura finishes his sentence "Get out of..." with "...the hall and come in," making for a creepy, effective moment.
200** The Viz translation kept Pegasus's dub name of Maximillion Pegasus, adding in "J" as with his Japanese name.
201[[/folder]]
202
203[[folder:Anime only]]
204* AccidentalAesop: The moral of the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc can be seen as "be patient and always check your email." If Otogi had waited a day before going out for revenge he'd have seen the contract and never gotten into conflict with Yugi at all.
205* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
206** The dub adds layers to Ryou Bakura by having him give a detailed description of the Millennium Eye and its powers, then claim to know only a little about it, and having Yami Bakura claim he promised to help him collect all the Items in the church scene at the start of season 5.
207** Rex Raptor is either a really bad duelist or a fair, honorable duelist who loses by either luck or someone cheating against him.
208** The dub also adds a new layer to Mako by giving him the belief that his father is still alive despite the fact he went missing in the sea during a storm. This gives a new interpretation that Mako is actually in denial over his father's death and desperately clings on to the belief that he is alive, which was boosted by his decision to resurrect The Legendary Fisherman, a card resembling his father, in his duel against Joey instead of letting it remain in the graveyard and resurrect another stronger monster.
209* AnimationAgeGhetto: ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' has a bizarre relationship with this trope. The series was first aired on Creator/KidsWB in [=4Kids'=] typical heavily {{bowdlerize}}d kid-friendly style, and became a big hit with the preteen demographic. However, the series was originally conceived for the older preteen/young teenage {{shonen}} demographic, and [=4Kids=] reflected this by releasing a few uncut [=DVDs=] of the show with both the original Japanese and a brand-new dub. The [=DVDs=] were an AcclaimedFlop and their sales paled in comparison to the "standard" dub, which is widely believed to be what compelled [=4Kids=] to start their infamous practice of never releasing the uncensored Japanese versions of their series. Nevertheless, [=4Kids=] and later Konami began officially releasing the uncensored Japanese version of the series and its sequels online over time, which became more popular as the franchise's original kid demographic grew up. While each series has both a dubbed and subtitled version available legally in the West, the dubs are generally family-friendly and marketed towards all ages[[note]]the dub of ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'' retains some dialogue bowdlerization and music replacement but leaves out some of the more ridiculous censorship like with handguns, and is clearly meant for a broader audience from the get-go[[/note]] while the subs are always uncensored and marketed more to the older fans, though older fans aren't prohibited from liking both. Meanwhile, the manga is a shonen manga marketed at kids in Japan despite copious amounts of blood, swearing, and horrific elements.
210* AntiClimaxBoss: In the Big Five's duel against Yugi and Jonouchi in season 3, the baddies manage to summon Five-Headed Dragon, a behemoth of a monster that in the anime was able to destroy all cards the opponent controls, while sporting 5000 ATK and being unable to be defeated in battle by anything other than a LIGHT monster. The mythical dragon was summoned previously on the Legendary Heroes arc and was only defeated by combining Yugi and Kaiba's strongest ace monsters (Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Black Luster Soldier) into the Dragon Master Knight but not before taking down Mai, Jonouchi and Mokuba with its attacks. Here it's also built up as a threat with the Big Five banking on Kaiba not being present at the moment (and therefore Yugi not having access to Dragon Master Knight) as their key to success. How long does it last? 2 turns later it gets defeated by Yugi's Mirage Knight without much effort at all, and their real boss monster turns out to be Berserk Dragon. Even the Legendary Fisherman made a better attempt at being threatening.
211* AssPull: During the Orichalcos arc, it was demonstrated just two episodes in that the Millennium Puzzle just plain doesn't work with the Seal around... only for it to suddenly work when the Pharaoh is about to lose his soul. ''However'', it's unclear if the Seal didn't take Yami's soul because the [[PlotArmor Millennium Puzzle repelled it]], or because there was no darkness in Yami's soul at that time for the Seal to work (which has precedence in Yami's second duel with Raphael), and the Millennium Puzzle was simply glowing to look cool. [[note]]What the latter means for the prior darkness within Yami's soul though is up to interpretation. Did he always have an inner darkness as seen in his first duel with Raphael, only to later purge it while trying to redeem himself to Yugi? Does he naturally not have any darkness in his soul, but in his obsession to win during aforementioned duel, create some darkness that the Seal than capitalized upon? Something else entirely?[[/note]]
212* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Has its [[AwesomeMusic/YuGiOh own page]].
213* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Bakura aggressively eating steak in Episode 81, which was cut from the dub.
214* BileFascination: Despite being practically impossible to find episodes of, there are fans that want to see if the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G9qRhhf0HQ infamous Singapore dub]] by ODEX lives up to the mockery it receives.
215* BizarroEpisode: Episode 28. The main plot centers on TĂ©a, Tristan and Bakura sneaking into Pegasus' tower to find out how he knows his opponent's moves, and they find a peephole looking down onto the dueling field which they take to mean he could have a minion with a telescope spying for him; but by this point both the audience and Yugi know that Pegasus has the Millennium Eye and can use it to read minds, so this isn't even a RedHerring. Then Pegasus catches them and teleports them to an ancient temple full of robed figures, including Pegasus himself who is dueling and defeating a cloaked figure. He makes to attack the trio before Yami Bakura comes out and teleports them all back to their rooms and erases their memories of the night. As this plot is happening, we also have Yugi receiving a psychic dream (or a simple nightmare, it's ambiguous) from his grandfather encouraging him to defeat Pegasus, and then a vision of Grandpa's card burning on a cross alongside Seto and Mokuba's cards. We also get a few cutaways to Mai adjusting her deck, but we don't see ''what'' she's doing, we just know she's changing something. Only two things of relevance happen and are resolved in a few minutes over two or three scenes, including the first scene for the episode: the match-ups for the finals are revealed along with how the prizes for the tournament will be handed out, and then Bandit Keith steals Jonouchi's entry card to the finals. Everything else is just MindScrew that has no bearing on the story.
216* BrokenBase:
217** The Virtual World and Doma arcs in the anime. Some fans dislike them for getting in the way of the main storyline, or enjoy them as breaks from the story and giving the cast deeper characterization.
218** The Creator/FourKidsEntertainment dub receives mixed reactions in the fandom. Detractors decry the edits, saying that the unneeded dialogue changes, ridiculous {{Bowdlerization}}, and removing of several subplots (Jonouchi's goal in Battle City is completely changed) ruins the series, creates several {{Dub Induced Plot Hole}}s, and ends up toning down the impact of the emotional moments such as when Mokuba stands up to Kaiba in the Battle City arc. Supporters of the dub don't mind the changes believing the series was already ridiculous and also claim that some of the changes in the dub are more in-line with the manga,[[note]]such as the portrayal of Seto Kaiba and the sarcastic and [[DeadpanSnarker deadpan snarking dialogue]] from the characters,[[/note]] and there is plenty of {{Woolseyism}} being given off from those changes that are to the dub's benefit. The over-the-top nature of the dub is a big point of contention; fans of the Japanese version consider it to be an embarrassment and liken it to a MerchandiseDriven '80s cartoon, claiming that the original version is easier to take seriously and is generally more respectable [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief despite the ridiculous premise]], while supporters praise the WorldOfHam voice acting by Creator/DanGreen and co, as well as the more silly and over-the-top aspects that make the anime stand out more and makes the Japanese version seem boring and [[{{Narm}} nonsensical]] with how it plays as a typical serious Shonen series with card games being its central plot.
219** In the same vein, [=4Kids'=] short-lived uncut dub. Fans of the dub attest that it was TooGoodToLast, preferring it over the "regular" dub by far, and appreciated being able to watch the show uncut in English with some of the flair of said "regular" dub intact, most notably character voices, accents and mannerisms. Others attest that the performances and dialogue were too stiff and wooden (with Kaiba in particular being hit with claims of SesquipedalianLoquaciousness) compared to the hammy, ludicrous and pun-filled dialogue of the "normal" dub and find it a more boring watch.
220* CantUnhearIt:
221** Regardless of how fans view the 4Kids dub, the English cast has become so iconic that many find it difficult to imagine anyone else voicing their characters, including Yami/Yugi (Creator/DanGreen) and Seto Kaiba (Creator/EricStuart).
222** Fans of the Japanese version and MemeticMutation have also turned some of the Japanese voices into this, most notably Creator/KenjiroTsuda's ridiculously hammy and [[VocalDissonance hyper-masculine]] pompous Kaiba, to the point that the official PROPLICA Duel Disk collectible includes 40 of his pre-recorded lines [[RuleOfCool for no apparent reason]].
223* CatharsisFactor: Yami snapping and beating the hell out of Weevil with Berserker Soul is probably supposed to be unnerving to some degree, and it certainly is to Tea in universe. On the other hand, it's [[HateSink Weevil]] that's getting slaughtered, so viewers are probably experiencing a fair bit of satisfaction at seeing the slimy bastard get exactly what he deserves.
224* DesignatedHero: In the English version, Jonouchi/Joey comes across this way for the conditions of the bet he made with Duke in episode 46. Otogi/Duke wants Jonouchi to be his servant for a week. Joey, on the other hand, wants Duke to ''shut down his store'' if he loses, which would put several workers who had nothing to do with their conflict on the streets. (In the Japanese version, Jounouchi wants Otogi's fan-girls to worship him instead, which is closer to the scale of what Otogi wanted.) This gets mocked in [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the abridged series]]:
225-->'''Yugi:''' Joey, don't you think that's a little extreme? You can't put someone out of business just because you're jealous.
226* DesignatedVillain: Ryuzaki is an unfortunate contender. Most of the early villains are jerks who just happened to get Yugi involved, rather than the later villains who have much more elaborate plans. In the manga and the early episodes of the anime, while a bit of a jerk, Ryuzaki isn't really a bad guy. The later episodes of the anime portray him as Haga's partner in crime who is willing to use the Orichalcos to get back at Jonouchi and stop losing.
227* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The dub {{bowdlerise}}s the massacre at Kul Elna by claiming that the Millennium Items were forged from the evil spirits inside of the villagers rather than their flesh and blood, while still insinuating that the villagers were all killed. Since we don't see any of those evil spirits, and Aknadin tells this to the soldiers right before brainwashing them, it looks like Aknadin is demonizing (relatively) innocent people to justify killing them and stealing their souls.
228* DracoInLeatherPants: The three main soldiers of Doma, Rafael, Amelda and Valon, are viewed as more sympathetic than their rivals (save for Amelda, who Kaiba fans viewed with as much sympathy, both being orphans who are protective older siblings), to whom they serve as darker foils with even more tragic pasts. To wit:
229** Rafael was seen as more honest than Yami in his BlackAndWhiteMorality, spent years shipwrecked on an island, lost his family, and that he became protective of his monsters. He also forced Yami to learn a hard lesson about not giving in to one's own darkness, with Yami's defeat being seen as comeuppance by anyone who found him overly preachy. (Not that Rafael couldn't resist waxing philosophical.) However, Rafael also rather blindly followed Dartz, a madman intent on [[SaltTheEarth resetting humanity]], used the aforementioned lesson as part of a BatmanGambit to steal his soul for Dartz's plan, and when he faced Yami again, he hypocritically used the very source of darkness he tempted Yami with, the Seal of Orichalcos, and did one of the things he criticized Yami most for doing the first time around: sacrificing his monsters. All of this, even though Yami, having learned his lesson the first time around was now [[WarriorTherapist trying to meet him where he was at]] and help him overcome his darkness and managed to succeed in saving his soul. In the end, the two were similar, even though some people are convinced otherwise.
230** Amelda may be the one case where his fans weren't detractors of his rival, in this case Seto Kaiba, since Kaiba ticked off many of the same boxes, and even in spite of Amelda being considered a dark, even more tragic {{Foil}} who blamed his counterpart for everything that happened to him. While [[HarmfulToMinors he was a war refugee who lost his younger brother]], his [[MisplacedRetribution retribution towards Kaiba was misplaced]].
231** Varon has been seen as more sympathetic than Jonouchi. Even though Jonouchi did everything he could to save Mai, from Yami Malik's MindRape to her control under the Orichalcos, Valon cared for her more just because he interrupted the duel, and his fans accused Jonouchi of being too preoccupied with dueling, even though Jonouchi didn't want to duel in the first place and tried to forfeit the duel to spare her soul. Not to mention Varon was the one who got her mixed up with Doma in the first place and tried to off Jonouchi. (Not to mention that fans of both Kaiba and Valon who hated Jou, not to mention Yugi and Mai didn't blink an eye when Kaiba risked the lives of the souls of three along with Pegasus in the duel vs. Dartz by attacking and destroying the Mirror Knights; luckily they were practically illusions, but still, the hypocrisy was ridiculous.)
232* EvilIsCool: While Dartz is an unpopular BigBad, his three henchmen, Rafael, [[DubNameChange Amelda/Alister]] and Valon are popular antagonists for their distinct decks, sympathetic backstories and the challenge they pose to their counterparts. Amelda nearly defeats Kaiba in their initial duel without cheating and still manages a draw when Kaiba gains the Fang of Critias, and Rafael stands out as handing Yugi one of his few defeats in the manga or the anime, and he does it cleanly.
233* FanficFuel: Where the Bakuras were in season 4 is a popular topic for fanfiction, with a general consensus being that [[spoiler:Ryou was busy building the diorama for the RPG]]. [[spoiler: [[CanonWelding Note that the game board for the Shadow RPG was a museum diorama built by Ryou only in the manga, while it's a TV screen that's implied to have been in a dark pocket dimension from the start in the anime]].]]
234* GeniusBonus: Orichalcum is a legendary metal used as currency in Atlantis, tying in with the Orichalcos card.
235* GrowingTheBeard: The Battle City Tournament is where the story in general became less of a MonsterOfTheWeek format and far more dramatic, particularly halfway through with Yugi's duel against Pantomimer/Strings and all the events that followed. The card game's rules also became much more consistent, with far fewer of the duel-winning {{Ass Pull}}s that were rife in Duelist Kingdom.
236* HarsherInHindsight:
237** The KC Grand Prix arc makes a couple jokes about Yugi's grandpa having a bad back. Then a flashback at the start of the Egypt arc reveals [[spoiler:he was ''shot'' in the back during his exploration of the Pharaoh's tomb]].
238** The Legendary Heroes arc's beginning, with Kaiba uploading himself into the VR world despite Mokuba's objections, becomes a lot harder to watch after ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'', where [[spoiler:Kaiba does the exact same thing with ''the afterlife'' and may or may not have died for it]].
239** The English dub adds a plot point to Season 1 of Yugi becoming afraid of his alter ego and temporarily afraid to even duel from fear of his other self taking control again and hurting someone. This EvilMeScaresMe element wasn't present at all in the original Japanese version... but it would be for Yugi's successor even in the original Japanese version of Season 3 of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX''.
240* HilariousInHindsight:
241** Some greedy, self-centered one-dimensional villain [[DivergentCharacterEvolution (at least in Season 1)]] traps innocent people into [[Anime/SwordArtOnline a virtual reality game?]]
242** And then said villains reappear in Season 3 to do it again, with the boss being, wait for it, the evil SpearCounterpart to the girl from the ''Anime/{{Shelter|2016}}'' music video.
243** [[Anime/{{Shinzo}} In the Waking The Dragons arc, the three Legendary Knights fuse into Timaeus the Knight of Destiny -a knight wearing a golden armor.]]
244** Tristan Taylor may seem like an unremarkable DubNameChange, but later, the TCG released Noble Knight Drystan[[note]]Welsh for Tristan[[/note]]. A character who's treated a JokeCharacter of a Duelist is now associated with a Noble Knight. This became even more amusing in ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'', where Noble Knight Drystan was released before Tristan as a character, and the latter received a major ButtMonkey treatment. In that game, each anime character got a signature card with an animation, so several fans jokingly suggested that Drystan should have been Tristan's signature card.
245** In the original Japanese, Yami Bakura is voiced by Rica Matsumoto, the seiyuu for [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash Ketchum]]. In the English dub, he's voiced by Ted Lewis, the dub actor for Giovanni.
246** Speaking of Giovanni, the dub version of the scene where Yami Bakura steals Pegasus' Millennium Eye is particularly ironic since Pegasus' dub actor, Darren Dunstan, [[Theatre/PokemonLive also played Giovanni at one point]].
247** In the dub, Pandora/Arkana calls Dark Magician Girl the Pharaoh's "girlfriend". Fast forward to Season 5, where he had ShipTease with Mana, the "original" Dark Magician Girl.
248** Another Pandora-related one, this time focusing on the original Japanese version. In his duel with Yugi, he uses a card called "Thousand Knives". Years later, [[Creator/TakehitoKoyasu his voice actor]] would end up lending his voice to [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure another villain who's infamous for throwing knives around]].
249** Greg Abbey voicing Tristan in the dub might be the most glaring case of a past role made ironic by a future role in casting history. Tristan isn't even a duelist, and a plot point is him lying to Serenity about being some champion duelist when the one duel he participates in shows he has no idea what he's doing. Two SequelSeries later, and he voices [[Anime/YuGiOh5Ds the hero and greatest duelist of his generation]].
250** In the first Virtual Nightmare duel, after Kuriboh appoints himself Yugi's Deckmaster, Gansley (for no apparent reason) calls Yugi a "slacker." This would later become the standard insult in the dub for Yugi's [[Anime/YuGiOhGX successor, assisted by another Kuriboh]].
251** The second episode, Yugi examines Joey's deck and tells him he can't win with a deck that only has monster cards. [[Anime/YuGiOhArcV An ally from a later series would use a pure monster deck.]]
252* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Anzu says this practically word for word to the [[{{Mook}} Rare Hunter]] who threatens to drop a crate on her head if she doesn't shut up. Despite the duel being rigged to ensure ''someone'' dies no matter what, nobody does.
253* MemeticBadass:
254** Since he is the only one besides Yugi who fairly defeated the Pharaoh in a duel, Rafael acquired this status.
255** Anzu Masaki/Tea Gardner once people realized she technically has a ''100% win rate'' [[note]]she won her battles against Jonouchi/Joey, Mai (though Mai had the ability to win and forfeited instead), and Crump[[/note]] out of all the characters in the franchise, something her successors and even the {{Invincible Her|o}}oes like Yugi and Yusei can't say.
256* MemeticMutation: [[Memes/YuGiOh Now with its own page.]]
257* MisBlamed: Fans who complain about [=4Kids=] skipping the Toei anime. This series is a different show based on the manga. It's not in continuity with the show they did dub, and directly contradicts it and the manga in several places. [=4Kids=] did not buy the rights to the Toei animation, and thus never dubbed it.
258* {{Moe}}: Rebecca gets this reaction from some, particularly after her redesigns.
259* MoralEventHorizon:
260** No matter the continuity, [=PaniK=] crosses this when he outright attempts to ''kill'' Yami Yugi with the flamethrowers of his Duel Arena after losing. He receives swift retribution.
261** Dartz would dispose of any of his servants at any time and his plan involved the sacrifice of billions of monster and human souls from several millennia, [[spoiler:but to find out that he messed with his three subordinates' childhoods to make them join him while blaming it on someone else]] proves how sick he was.
262** Gozuburo Kaiba crossed it when he [[spoiler:uploaded his own son's mind to a Virtual World and then abandoning him.]]
263** Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki crossed it by [[spoiler: willingly joining up with Doma in the first place and trying to respectively steal Dark Yugi and Jonouchi's souls. While Doma's main three warriors, as well as Mai, were all manipulated into joining them, both Haga and Ryuzaki did so completely of their own volition after viewing Raphael in action and being impressed with their power.]]
264* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
265** The beeping noise every time the life point counter goes down.
266** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC38M9U03dk The Blue-Eyes White Dragon's roar]]. Gotta hand it to 4Kids, they did an awesome job on it. And when they combine into the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, it becomes deliciously and ferociously layered.
267** In the Japanese version, many of the ridiculously hammy lines have become this due to MemeticMutation, like Yami Yugi's '''"[[GratuitousEnglish DORO! MONSUTAA KAADO!]]"''' and Kaiba's '''"SHOKAN! BURU-AIZU HOWAITO DORRRAGON!"'''
268* {{Narm}}: The preview for episode 128 is not the first of the series' example of TrailersAlwaysSpoil, but it ''is'' the most infamous one, and is repeatedly memed in Japan because of how ridiculous the revealing nature of the episode's title is after all the dramatic narration that precedes it. Whenever you see that preview in any Japanese TV show, expect the people watching it to laugh immediately as soon as they read the episode title "Jonouchi Dies".
269* NarmCharm:
270** The [=4Kids=] version of the show is this by some, mostly the ones who came into the series via the dubbed version. The dub as a whole is pretty over-the-top compared to the Japanese version. The voice acting can be pretty hammy during duels and the dialogue is silly or stupid at times, but because of how silly the series can be as a whole, these elements gel pretty well with it.
271** Japanese Dark Bakura is voiced by Rica Matsumoto (aka [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} Satoshi/Ash Ketchum]]). Let that sink in for a moment. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZwidS0DnI4 Then hear him laugh]]. It's both scary and funny at the same time.
272* NeverLiveItDown:
273** Poor Jonouchi will never live down the time Ryuji Otogi made him wear a dog suit and bark for him. It's often used to compare him to his manga counterpart in a derogatory way, and him wearing one in the manga-based ''Dark Side of Dimensions'' made a ''lot'' of his fans angry.
274** People in the dueling community remember Rebecca more as "that one girl who uses Cannon Soldier" or "that one girl who uses that annoying Heal / Burn combo" than anything related to her personality or deeds such as hacking into Kaiba Corporation’s computer system.
275* OlderThanTheyThink: A lot of the jokes in ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' were directly inspired by the 4Kids dub, which constantly threw in plenty of metacommentary and BreakingTheFourthWall lines. Creator/LittleKuriboh [[https://twitter.com/yugiohtas/status/958531665776672769?lang=en even credited them with this on Twitter.]]
276* {{Padding}}: The three anime-only arcs, consisting of the Virtual World arc during the first half of season 3, the Doma arc for the entirety of season 4, and the KC Grand Champions arc for the first half of season 5. The first one at least explores some of the Kaiba brothers past and provides some CharacterDevelopment on their part. While the other two arcs do give some focus to Jonouchi and Rebecca, they could be excised without affecting the final arcs of the series at all.
277* QuestionableCasting:
278** While Creator/KenjiroTsuda is a great Japanese voice actor, his deep, roary and masculine voice probably wasn't the best match for Seto Kaiba's snarky and calm characterization, but regardless, it's still a great performance in its own right with many LargeHam moments.
279** Sam Riegel's voice as Tristan Taylor in the first couple of episodes in the dub came off as {{Narm}} because of how nasally and uninflective his voice sounded. Luckily, Greg Abbey replaced him after the first eight episodes and was more well received.
280* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Rebecca in season 4, carrying on into season 5. She became a lot less of a brat than she was in Season 1. It also helped that Season 5 gave her a memorable deck that combined the niche healing burn strategy in the TCG with the Gem Dragons in a way that's coherent and playable in real life compared to other anime decks.
281* RetroactiveRecognition: Dartz' father Ironheart is voiced by Brian Maillard in the English dub as one of his first roles. He'd also voice the likes of [[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire Drake]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}} Leopold Loggle.]]
282* TheScrappy:
283** Rebecca was a notorious one during her first appearance on the show for being a BrattyHalfPint who refused to listen to reason, threw tantrums and talked to her teddy bear to hide her strategy, and technically defeated Yugi when he surrendered the match to teach her a lesson in respecting her cards. Many were surprised to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap suddenly find themselves liking her]] [[TheBusCameBack when she returned in later seasons]] as a more mature character.
284** Otogi/Duke Devlin's cheerleaders from the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc are near-universally disliked. Instead of just fawning over Otogi/Duke, they boo Yugi, demean and physically assault Jonouchi/Joey, and rub the fact that he's wearing a dog suit in his face, which is played as comic relief and could be excised without losing anything. They're not shown apologizing and/or getting comeuppance for their actions, and many fans see them as emblematic of problems with the arc in general. The fact that one of the girls has a very {{gonk}} design doesn't help.
285** Vivian Wong, for those who don't find her FanGirl antics to be amusing, particularly late into the arc when she crosses the line into manipulating and abusing Yugi's grandfather as part of a plan to make Yugi [[{{Squick}} her "love slave".]]
286* SeasonalRot: The fourth season, "Waking the Dragons" aka the Doma arc, is considered to be one of the weakest parts of the anime due to it not only being an anime-only arc that takes up the entire season and doesn't add anything to the main story involving Atem's past or the Millennium Items, but also a ClicheStorm involving Yugi, Kaiba, and Jonouchi as [[TheChosenOne The Chosen Ones]], which ran contrary to the personal stakes that the manga and previous seasons intended. The different powers of the Orichalcos, which is the central element of the arc, is frequently expanded upon via AssPull in the episodes where it feels like they are all just made up on the spot. The dub didn't help with this, often removing nuance, such as giving the villains generic BlackAndWhiteMorality. They also gave the Seal of Orichalcos the power to turn its wielders evil, as opposed to the original simply revealing and testing one's true nature, making Atem's use of it look even more like AesopAmnesia from Duelist Kingdom. Naturally, this arc and especially the dub is a frequent source to poke fun at in ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries''.
287* SequelDisplacement: The Duel Monsters anime is still the iconic and definitive ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' media in the minds of many, with most people often ignoring the existence of the previous anime series by Toei.
288* SignatureScene:
289** Dark Yugi defeating Kaiba with Exodia in the first episode is one of the most iconic moments of the series. The smiley scene also counts to a lesser extent.
290** "DORO! MONSTA CARDO!", a line immortalized by the scene where Yami Yugi reaches his RageBreakingPoint with Insector Haga when the latter pretends to have had little Yugi's soul card ripped in half solely to piss him off, with Yami activating "Berserking Soul" and continuing to assault Haga with it even after his Life Points are depleted and he is beaten, only stopping with Anzu interferes.
291* {{Squick}}: Yami Marik's gross tongue movements and increasingly veiny appearance are nauseating to watch.
292* SubbingVersusDubbing: As mentioned under BrokenBase, there is ''heated'' debate in the fandom on whether the original Japanese or English [=4Kids=] localization of ''Duel Monsters'' is better due to the edited nature of the latter. When ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' was first released stateside, many older fans were made aware of the show through the dub but were revulsed by the many changes [=4Kids=] made (often citing the AnimationAgeGhetto), and in its early days there was a niche but noticeable Western fandom for the subbed version. However, as dub watchers grew up, they came to appreciate some of the various {{Woolseyism}}s and the ludicrous WorldOfHam [[DeadpanSnarker snarkery]] that was inserted into the series, and support for the dub grew among older fans. At that point, 4K Media made both the subbed and dubbed versions of the show officially available on their website and on Website/{{Crunchyroll}}, appeasing both camps. That said, there's still debate in the fandom on which is the superior version, and it doesn't help that ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' is often thrown into the mix as an "alternate" dub to turn it into a ''three''-way debate.
293* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Considering that the English dub was produced by 4Kids, company known for its changes to the anime whether it's because of its infamously overbearing censorship that's enforced by Broadcast Standards and Practices, to make the anime more marketable to international audiences, or just because they took some liberties with it themselves such as replacing the music with their own in order to make profits off of other countries using their music in the dub through royalty fees, it was inevitable that 4Kids was going to get this once again. Even though the heavy flak for the dub has died down in recent years thanks to [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the Abridged Series]] and has even brought in new fans, as well as the dub quality of later ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series being all over the place, it still gets this every now and then from fans of the Japanese version and [=4Kids'=] anti-fandom in general.
294* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: A Duelist Kingdom episode begins with Joey finding some cards on the ground and decides its his lucky day. Tristan tells Joey they're his and reasons if someone like Joey can hold his own in the game, he might be an expert at it. His only duel is during the Virtual World arc against Nezbitt and spends it protecting Serenity and losing.
295* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: When Jonouchi loses to Yami Marik at Battle City, he falls comatose as he struggles to survive, and has a flashback to a tournament he entered before Duelist Kingdom (in the dub, he's fighting to not fall into the Shadow Realm and is hallucinating). Jonouchi winning the tournament would have provided great symbolism for him overcoming Marik's powers and surviving, particularly since his opponent's ace monster is Metal Dragon, paralleling Marik's Winged Dragon of Ra as a mechanical dragon. Instead he loses the tournament and wakes up anyway because it reminded him of his vow to become a true duelist.
296* TieInCereal: In 2003, General Mills released a [[https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/File:YuGiOhCereal.png tie-in cereal]] to ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', with [[Characters/YuGiOhYamiYugi Yami Yugi]] and Exodia on the front with a glossy cover, the kernels shaped like the Millennium Puzzle.
297* ToyShip: Between Yugi and Rebecca. For some fans, [[PairTheSpares Mokuba and Rebecca or Leon and Rebecca.]]
298* UnconvincinglyUnpopularCharacter: Joey is fairly attractive, friendly, and a pretty badass duelist, and yet is constantly the target of bullying and mean-spirited jokes from professional duelists and enemies, as well as Kaiba.
299* UnexpectedCharacter: No one thought Rebecca would show up again after her introduction, but she became a major part of seasons 4 and 5.
300* UnintentionallySympathetic: Dinosaur Ryuzaki/Rex Raptor. He's often treated by the show like he's just as bad as Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood, but that comparison doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. While Ryuzaki could be a bit of a jerk, he ultimately always played fairly and tried to help Jonouchi/Joey against Espa Roba. Haga was way worse, often cruel and willing to resort to extreme measures (such as throwing Yugi's Exodia overboard) or outright cheating (like slipping a card into Jonouchi's deck) in order to win duels. ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks'' makes him an AdaptationalNiceGuy as a result, with him being on friendly terms with Joey and even having bonding scenes like their shared failure to solve duel puzzles.
301* ViewerGenderConfusion:
302** Alister looks ''very'' girlish. In the original, his name (Amelda) and voice were also both more feminine than in the dub.
303** Mokuba is this in certain countries, due to the fact that some dubs gave him a very girly voice. His OppositeSexClone Princess Adena does not help at all.
304* ValuesDissonance: The various moments of ShipTease between Joey and Mai can fall into this for some viewers, especially later on when it's implied that Mai is starting to return the feeling, considering that Joey is a high-school teenager and Mai is in her mid-twenties. Oddly, despite being notorious for its censorship, this aspect was almost untouched by the dub.
305* VindicatedByHistory:
306** Much like the ''Anime/GhostStories'' dub, the 4Kids dub has, in time, gone from widely despised for its liberties with the source material to considered hilarious and prone to NarmCharm for the same, with excellent voice acting performances, plenty of {{Woolseyism}}, and generally absolutely ''running'' with how ridiculous the premise and characters can be instead of playing it straight and seriously, not to mention the [[NostalgiaFilter nostalgia]] factor. While many of their later dubs remain divisive, this one gets a pass in comparison, though not without its own detractors. In particular, [[WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries the Abridged Series]] encouraged many to revisit the dub and realize just how much Abridged-style humour 4Kids themselves put in (Seto Kaiba in particular is just as snarky as his Abridged Series counterpart).
307** The 4Kids dub has also been viewed more favorably when the ODEX dub became more well known and became a target of mockery for its frequent [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation]] [[TranslationTrainWreck errors]], its [[QuestionableCasting poor casting choices]] that give very poor performances, and this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-qylk_uscg infamous scene]] that Creator/LittleKuriboh [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdbB8-3nKgI satirized]].
308** The Virtual World arc was initially hated by fans for interrupting the fan favorite Battle City arc. While still [[BrokenBase divisive]], opinions on it have warmed up since it does delve into Kaiba's backstory while making him far more sympathetic than his manga counterpart, so it does add something to the series while having some surprisingly emotional moments.
309* WatchItForTheMeme: There are fans of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' that check out the English dub to see all the satirical references [=LittleKuriboh=] made to it such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCspMtN_4bY this]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhCbWlCNmTs scene]], as well as its reputation for being over-the-top and memetic akin to '80s cartoons like ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987''.
310* {{Woolseyism}}: [[Woolseyism/YuGiOh Has its own page]].
311[[/folder]]

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