YMMV / Yu-Gi-Oh! (first anime series)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Ms. Chono's Shadow Game make her face as ugly as her horrid personality, or did it only show her how ugly she is on the inside? When Kaoruko loses her game, her skin becomes wrinkled and she looks like an old woman. However, this is only while she's with Yami Yugi. When Kaoruko humiliates herself in front of the entire school, her skin's fine. Even though we're shown Chono's make-up cracking whenever she's angry or acting mean, we never get a look at what's underneath implying it might all be psychological.
• Ass Pull: The Monster World game has a moment where the group is trapped in a tower with a descending ceiling and only one number would free them. In the manga the spiked tower's correct number was 33, and Yami Yugi successfully rolled it on the very last turn, which was already this. In the Toei anime he rolls a 66, only to be told the correct answer was 99, so everyone will die... only for Miho's fairy merchant powers to change the number to the correct one and save the day, despite the pillar still saying 99.
• Awesome Music: Dark Yugi's transformation theme, a slick techno/orchestral mix that definitely conveys stuff is about to go down.
  • The show's OP, "Kawaita Sakebi", is also very catchy. The fact that Little Kuriboh uses it for YTAS's theme has helped it catch on in the West.
• Can't Un-Hear It: One of the things this series is praised for is Megumi Ogata's performance as Yugi and especially Yami, to the point where some even consider her to be superior to Shunsuke Kazama.
• Common Knowledge: Thanks to its nickname of "Season 0" there are fans who believe it to be a 'lost season' of the second-series anime, consider it a canon prequel, or consider the manga to be 'season 0' as well. There are also fans who say it's much closer to the manga than it is, or use it as evidence for things happening in the manga/anime that are actually Toei-exclusive. The fact that the Toei-exclusive Risa and Kaoruko's names appeared as easter eggs in season 4 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX does not help matters.
• Creepy Awesome: This Yami Yugi takes enjoyment in punishing evildoers with Shadow Games where they end up being driven insane. His Shadow Games are a big reason people enjoy the series.
• Cult Classic: While the second anime and the manga are more well-known, this series has a small but loyal fanbase.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Of the Toei-exclusive characters, Aileen Rao, Kaoruko Himekoji, and the Kageyama sisters have the largest followings. Aileen is well-liked for being a smart, confident Lady of War who nearly defeats Yugi and Jonouchi, Kaoruko is liked for her design and creative Shadow Game, Risa and her sisters are liked for being interesting, creepy characters that more could have been done with, and all of them are liked for being female villains in a series that generally lacks them.
  • Daimon, for his Adaptational Heroism and being a Cool Old Guy who refuses to resort to cheating.
• Evil Is Cool: Seto Kaiba is much more malicious and persistent here than in any other interpretation (though the manga comes close), and many fans found this to be a very enjoyable direction that made him fun to watch as he constantly hams it up and steals the spotlight as he tries to take down Yugi.
• Fan Nickname:
  • 'Series 0' or 'Season 0'.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series calls it The Forbidden Season.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: You'd be surprised how many people love this series outside of Japan, especially fans of the second series anime.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Unlike the manga and second anime, the Millennium Scales and Ring have blood-red highlights. While in this anime it's just a visual choice and doesn't mean anything, come the reveal much later of how the Items were made by sacrificing 99 villagers, it suddenly becomes horrifying and makes a lot of sense.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Toei anime is infamous for the meme of Kaiba having green hair (and screwing the money cause he has rules). Cue the Duel Monsters anime, in a filler arc, having a green-haired Toei Kaiba lookalike named Noah who wants revenge on Seto, is revealed to be Gozaburo's actual son, and admonishes the Big Five for cheating when they should be following his rules.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Several fans watch the series purely for Dark Yugi, whose Penalty Games make him far more of an Anti-Hero than his second series version.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Dark Yugi, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle inhabiting Yugi Muto, proves once again to be a smart and manipulative gamer. Challenging bullies and other threats to Shadow Games, Dark Yugi exposes their true character before using his Penalty Games to Mind Rape them into submission. Dark Yugi also shows a sense of mercy sparing opponents that he felt were worthy or kind enough after their defeats. In spite of constant challenges from opponents such as Seto Kaiba and his various henchmen, Dark Yugi prevails through their games, eventually resulting in him Mind Crushing Kaiba to free him of his darkness.
  • Risa Kageyama sets her sights on Yugi Moto when he obtains the Violet Hecate card. Giving him love letters and other tokens of affection, she acts too charming for him to turn her down, and gets her sisters to foil Anzu Mazaki's attempts to help Yugi when he has a cold. When Yugi refuses to give her the card, Risa steals it and the Millennium Puzzle with a whip, challenging him to a duel to get it back. Yugi is losing the duel when Seto Kaiba takes over, and when he draws a Blue-Eyes White Dragon the Kageyama Sisters counter with the powerful Gorgon, only losing when he draws another. Manipulative and able to act completely innocent, Risa's pretty face hides a scheming mind.
  • Aileen Rao is Kaiba's third Game Master who has never lost a game before, has hypnotic powers, and excels in trickery and reading her opponents. Gleaning that Anzu is important to Yugi, she takes her hostage and endangers her life to prevent Yugi from learning the rules of raijinhai, nearly defeating him twice in a row. Upon her defeat, she accepts her loss gracefully and frees Anzu, telling Kaiba that Yugi is stronger than he is. At Death-T's fighting game she defeats Jonouchi in combat before the power of friendship gives him a second wind, also complimenting his strength. Yugi himself compliments Aileen's strength and strategic mind, acknowledging her as a Worthy Opponent.
  • Movie: Seto Kaiba proves himself to be Yugi's greatest opponent, setting up a Duel Monsters gaming center to attract duelists and their rare cards. Upon learning of Shougo Aoyama's Red Eyes Black Dragon, Kaiba sets up a mandatory tournament in order to claim the card for himself. Sending his goons to first kidnap Shougo and then to steal the Red Eyes, Kaiba takes Yugi's Millennium Puzzle as a hostage in order to lure his rival into confrontation. Unveiling his new virtual reality system, Kaiba almost defeats Yugi through his brilliant strategies, and upon losing, accepts his defeat.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Kaiba's neon-green hair has become emblematic of the series. In Japan it's often compared to a cabbage.
  • Screenshots of Dark Yugi from the series became the basis for the "King of GE Ts" meme on /a/.
  • A trend has emerged on Youtube with videos containing excerpts of various episodes titled "Why Yugioh Season 0 is [descriptor]".
  • Jonouchi crossdressing in episode 19 is fairly well-known.
• Moe:
  • Miho Nosaka can be considered this due to her girly appearance and personality.
  • Yugi due to being tiny, his voice and his childlike personality.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Seto Kaiba's butler, Daimon, is physically weak and lives in a life support capsule that he can only exit for a short amount of time. Kaiba wakes Daimon up, tells him to go fight Yugi (with Anzu as bait), tries to get him to cheat at Duel Monsters, and when he loses, Kaiba leaves him for dead right after Daimon expresses hope that his kindness can be restored, also crushing oranges—a symbol of the younger Kaiba's kindness—on his way out. Immediately after, he goes on to build Death-T for the purpose of killing Yugi and his friends. To make things worse, in this continuity Kaiba hadn't lost to Yugi or received the Experience of Death Penalty Game, so he wanted to kill him and his friends for tying a game.
  • Dr. Goyu from episode 16 was responsible for the deaths of at least 20 of his patients just so he could go play golf. When his nurse found out, she slapped him and he got her fired for it. If he didn't cross it there, then he definitely did when he threatened to kick Shizuka out of the hospital if Jonouchi told the authorities about his actions.
• Narm: The yo-yo episode is infamous in the fandom for being too silly to take seriously. While in the manga the yo-yos are weaponized and real threats, in the anime they aren't except for Hirutani's, so his gang terrorizes Domino with ordinary toys.
• Older Than They Think: Several elements the second anime is known for, like Yugi getting taller when he transforms and the Millennium Ring shooting laser beams, appeared here first.
• Quirky Work: Even by Yu-Gi-Oh standards this series can get bizarre at times, including episodes about an English count who collects dolls, can change his voice, and can control life-size puppets, a trio of witch sisters who play Duel Monsters and wield whips, and a supermodel with hypnotic powers and a pet tiger.
• Realism-Induced Horror: Episode 11 has Miho deal with a creepy stalker who wants to imprison her inside a giant Capmon capsule. Miho is about 15 and her stalker is at least 18.
• The Scrappy: Miho gets plenty of hate due to being annoying, a satellite character who takes away other characters' awesome moments from the manga, for stringing Honda along when she's clearly not attracted to him, and for being very shallow in her selection of guys (Kaiba for his wealth, Fuwa for his fame and possible wealth, and Ryou for his attractiveness).
• Tear Jerker:
  • The first episode has Yugi's constant bully problem and loner status, also having a moment that isn't from the manga where Jonouchi (who has just recovered the puzzle piece) and Honda find Ushio while he's beating Yugi up. Jonouchi immediately runs over to check on Yugi while Honda faces Ushio. Jonouchi then tucks the final puzzle piece into Yugi's hand before joining Honda at attempting to take on Ushio, with Honda expressing disgust at Ushio for hurting Yugi.
  • The ending of episode 4 shows one of the few times a Penalty Game affects someone besides the victim, as Shotaro's mother begs him to tell her why he smashed all his watches and pleads that she'll understand.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Risa and her sisters are a trio of witches, and are good enough at dueling to nearly beat Kaiba, but they never appear after their debut despite Yugi and his enemies also using magic, Yugi not getting to defeat them himself, and the increased focus on dueling as the series went on.
  • Aileen Rao is set up as a confident, compelling character in her debut, being presented as a counterpart to Yami Yugi and Anzu, using trickery and hypnotism to sway opponents, getting a crush on Yugi, being on a first-name basis with Kaiba, and having a Heel–Face Turn at the end. When she reappears at Death-T to fight Jonouchi, not only is there no explanation for her sudden alignment switch back to evil, she only gets a handful of lines and none of her previous characterization is delved into.
• The Woobie: Ryou Bakura had to constantly change schools due to Yami Bakura sticking his friends into figurines as well as memory gaps, getting his hand and chest stabbed during the Monster World RPG, and soul pains before Yami Bakura took over for the first time. He was also revealed to be very lonely and bullied as a child, just wanting friends who'd stay with him. In episode 19, he introduces himself to Yugi saying that he hopes he didn't hurt him because sometimes he loses his memory.

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