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"Friendship protects the world. Dueling protects the future. This is the power set toward our futures!"
Tagline of the movie trailer

A movie special made for the tenth anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Featuring the three protagonists of the first three series, they fight against a mysterious man, Paradox, who intends to bring the world down the path of destruction. He first steals Yusei's Stardust Dragon, then travels back in time, piling up a good number of questionable acts on his list in order to realize his goal. The three protagonists eventually get to him, challenging him to the ultimate duel.

The movie debuted in Japan on the 23rd of January in 2010. The English version of the movie premiered on February 26th 2011, under the name "Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time". An encore run of the movie was announced for Japan nationwide on that same date, as part of the Worldwide Anniversary. The Japanese DVD was released on June 16, 2011, with a US release occurring later.


This movie provides examples of:

  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Duel Monsters and some of the scenery and smoke. The quality is generally better than in 5D's, although the scene with Paradox capturing Stardust Dragon can look somewhat jarring when viewed in 2D.
  • Actor Allusion: The German dub casted Stefan Gossler as Paradox, who previously voiced Para in Duel Monsters and GX and Dox in GX.
  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The dub makes Yusei more angsty about his role in helping the citizens of New Domino, coupled with worries that he can't make a difference and that they won't trust him if he does.
  • After the End: The distant future appears to be like this.
  • All There in the Manual: The 10th Anniversary Animation Book answers some of the questions regarding the movie.
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Paradox's Sin World Field Spell turns the area into a purple space full of stars.
  • Animation Bump: The animation is much more detailed and fluid compared to the anime series. It helps that the animation director was Takahiro Kagami.
  • Anime Hair: Not only does the movie have the three protagonists with their amazing hairstyles in one place, but Paradox's hairstyle takes the cake.
    • Lampshaded by Jack in the dub while looking at a picture of Yugi.
    Jack: Doesn't look so tough to me. Of course, how could you with that dated haircut?
  • Anti-Villain: According to Atsushi Tamura, Paradox's voice actor. He noted that he doesn't want people to consider Paradox as a typical villain and that he also carries grief on his shoulders and has a particular reason to battle. Given he’s apart of Yliaster and is trying to fix their apocalyptic future, while his actions are heinous, they're smaller in the grand scheme of what comes later on in 5Ds.
  • Apocalypse How: Paradox's future ranks as Class 4 or Class 5 - no seas, no forests, just rubble with Paradox as one of the few humans remaining. After Paradox starts altering the past with time travel, this Trope is bumped up to Class Z due to reality disintegrating thanks to the changes he makes.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: In the dub from Yusei, of all people.
    Paradox: I come from the future.
    Yusei: (who comes from the future) What's that supposed to mean?
  • Author Appeal: Takahiro Kagami loves putting a lot of detail into hands.
  • Back for the Dead: Pegasus makes an appearance at an event, where he is killed by Paradox shortly after. Yugi's grandfather also suffers the same fate. Then again, this is a story with time travel involved...
  • Bad Future: Paradox's future.
  • Bat Family Crossover: Bringing the universes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds together.
  • Batman Gambit: Yugi pulls one to save Stardust Dragon, attempting to snag Sin Paradox Dragon through a Trap Card via the Black Magician duo and when Paradox activates a power on said Sin Monster, it turns right towards Stardust Dragon.
  • Big Bad: Paradox is the main villain of the movie.
  • Big Damn Movie: While the other series involved saving the world in several cases, the movie pushes it to a much bigger scale. The entire timeline is in danger, and it requires three protagonists to save it.
  • Big "NO!": Pegasus, right before his death.
    • Also, Yugi when he realizes that his Grandpa is dead.
    • Dub Paradox, when Stardust Mirage is activated.
  • Bloodless Carnage: After Paradox attacks Domino City with the dragons, among the wreckage not a single body or drop of blood is to be found despite the movie implying all those people were killed.
  • Breaking Speech: Before the climactic duel Paradox gives the heroes one, stating that even before he began to change history there were 'contradictions' such as environmental destruction, war, and human cruelty and that their futures are not the right ones. Considering he comes from a Bad Future, it makes sense he feels that way.
  • Captain Obvious: In the Japanese version, Pegasus gets a foreboding feeling en route to his destination. That might have something to do with the fact that his helicopter is flying straight into a swirling vortex of thunderclouds.
  • Card Games: Of course! It's also responsible for the future's destruction.
  • City of Canals: Paradox attacks Judai in Venice (more specifically, St. Mark's Square) when the latter goes there to investigate a local issue.
  • Clothing Damage: When Judai gets hit by Malefic Stardust Dragon's powerful blast, he ends up getting his clothes nearly ripped out, resulting in baring the midsection.
  • Combat Commentator: Daitokuji takes up this role during the Paradox vs. protagonists duel.
  • Combination Attack/All Your Powers Combined: Two of them, first by Black Magician and Black Magician Girl, then by the three protagonists' signature monsters.
  • Continuity Cameo: Pegasus, Sugoroku, the Crimson Dragon, Jack, Crow, Lua, Luka, Aki, Prof. Daitokuji, and Yubel all make minor appearances in this movie, hailing from their respective shows.
  • Cool Bike: Paradox's D-Wheel is capable of time travel and transformation. And it actually looks like something which would complain about being a motorbike in the first place.
  • Cool Mask: Paradox's mask. It gets even gets Glowing Eyes of Doom at one point.
  • Credits Medley: The English version of the film's credits have the theme songs playing one after the other and then on the final shot (of the heroes and then the pictures shifting into their cards), the music is the Seasons 2-3 version of the Duel Monsters theme song).
  • Dead Hat Shot: Yugi finds his grandfather's bandanna after the buildings collapse on everyone.
  • Death is Cheap: Pegasus and Yugi's grandpa.
  • Delayed Ripple Effect: Paradox's changes to the past cause reality to slowly fall apart.
  • Dragons Versus Knights: Yusei and Judai use mostly warrior monsters while Paradox relies on corrupted versions of well-known dragon cards. Yusei and Judai even have a fusion of Elemental Hero Neos and Junk Gardna called Elemental Hero Neos Knight.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: More like an enormous building.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: 4Kids completely passed over the events of GX's final season, which wasn't dubbed, leading to confusion as to why Jaden is happy go lucky again.
  • Duels Decide Everything: Well, obviously, it's Yu-Gi-Oh!, after all, but notable in that dueling is directly contradictory to Paradox's goal, which is to prevent the spread of Duel Monsters by traveling back in time to kill Pegasus. Nevertheless, Paradox still willingly stakes his mission on the outcome of a duel with Yugi, Judai/Jaden and Yusei. No wonder he's named "Paradox".
  • Dying Race: Paradox is one of the few humans remaining on Earth in the future.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Pick your choice: either by Duel Monsters or by the disintegration of the dimension.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave: Yugi has one of these moments when he realizes everybody in Domino except himself is dead.
    • Effects in the actual duel both play this trope straight and invert it. Sin Truth plays it straight by destroying everything, and Stardust Mirage brings everything back.
  • Evil Laugh: Paradox, obviously. Some of his laughs make him sound like he's channeling Hiruma right there.
  • Evil Makeover: Paradox has the ability to turn the stolen monsters into "Sin" monsters.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: Yusei ends up in Judai's time first, then both of them eventually wind up in Yugi's time. Judai gushes at Yusei's D-Wheel, and later on both Judai and Yugi are amazed at Yusei's Synchro Summon.
    Yami Yugi (English dub script): Synchro WHAT?!
  • Flat Character: Elemental HERO Neos, who unlike the other protagonist's ace cards, has no signs of personality in this movie, appearing purely to be Judai's signature monster. Black Magician and Black Magician Girl both exchange dialogue upon being summoned together and even Stardust Dragon has a brief reunited moment with Yusei. Even weirder is that, in the series proper, he's shown to have plenty of personality. The closest it could have to one could be when Neos engages in the final attack with Black Magician and Stardust Dragon (in the sub).
  • Fusion Dance: Paradox with Sin Truth Dragon, after Sin Paradox Dragon is destroyed.
  • Genre Savvy: Jack has seen enough movies to know that altering the past is not good for the future.
  • Heroic BSoD: Yugi goes through one after he realizes that Grandpa Moto is dead. Hence the Pharaoh taking over for the duration of the duel.
    • Yusei himself has a pretty bad one that pushes him to the brink of surrender, coaxed back only by Yugi and Judai, it may or may not have to do with him seen struggling to be on the other side of Stardust from the 5D's openings.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: To use his Sin cards, he ends up using Sin World, which will kill a player should their Life Points drop to 0. In the end, he's the one killed by it when Yugi, Judai and Yusei unleash their final attack.
  • Idiot Ball: Although he's never called on it, Paradox makes a number of amateurish mistakes throughout the duel, but his crowning moment may be his initial plan to duel Yugi, Judai, and Yusei all at once.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Yugi activates a spell card that allows him to take control of one of Paradox's two dragons. Paradox, in return, activates a Trap to prevent it from working against Sin Paradox Dragon, the larger, nastier of the pair... just in time to find out that Yugi was going after the other one, Stardust Dragon, the whole time.
  • Invincible Hero: By the second turn of the game, the protagonists are basically in control of the whole game, with Paradox doing little to bring them down.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: The cast of Sakiyomi JumBANG! make an appearance as MCs, voicing themselves accordingly in the Japanese version.
  • Iconic Outfit: All the main characters wear their signature outfit from their respective series. Yugi and Judai get extra points for combining this with School Uniforms are the New Black - it's already well established that Yugi wears his uniform everywhere, but who knows why Judai would also travel the world in his Osiris Red coat?
  • In Medias Res: The movie starts in Venice, where Paradox is attacking Judai with his dragons.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The trailers for the Japanese version of the movie spoiled for the dub viewers at the time that Judai/Jaden fused with Yubel and gained his/her powers and Yusei became the owner of the Dragon Head birthmark.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the end of the movie, Pegasus says he has a special card for the children attending the tournament he paid a visit to and asks them to take one. People who attended the movie received Sin Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which was a limited edition card and could only be obtained that way unless you bought the special movie packs.
  • Left Hanging: How the distant future Paradox lived in got destroyed and the true identity of Paradox isn't revealed in the movie, though it's elaborated on in Episodes 134 and 135 of 5D's.
  • Le Parkour: Judai, manages to get from the top of a column in St. Mark's Square to the roof of a nearby building to avoid the attacks of Rainbow Dragon and Cyber End Dragon.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: The Japanese ending theme, Makemagic, while it sounds catchy and all, the lyrics are about somebody describing their female lover, down to their lips and skin, and wanting to embrace them. It's about as out of place as it can get for a movie aimed at young boys. The English credits instead use a medley of the theme songs of the anime.
  • Made of Iron: All three protagonists to ridiculous degrees.
    • Judai not only jumped from a building to the ground without sustaining a single scratch, but he also endured an attack from Stardust Dragon (alongside Neos, who you see is visibly cracking from the assault).
    • Yugi somehow survived being at ground-zero of an attack that involved a building collapsing on top of countless people. Not only is he the only survivor, but he's also barely bruised.
    • Yami Yugi gets hit by an attack and skids, face-first, on the floor but isn't even shown bleeding.
  • Make Wrong What Once Went Right: How the three protagonists view Paradox's goal.
  • Malevolent Masked Man: Paradox.
  • Meaningful Name: Paradox's name is a reference to the concept of time/space paradoxes.
  • Meanwhile, in the Future…: After Paradox steals Stardust Dragon and travels back in time, Yusei and co. return to Poppo Time. Akiza shows them a photo of Stardust Dragon and Paradox in Venice, who is destroying the city.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: The protagonists are upset by the deaths of Pegasus and Sugoroku Mutou, and to a lesser extent, everyone who died to Paradox's attack. To Paradox, on the other hand, the entire massacre was a trivial step to further his experiment. Considering he really didn't care about destroying Venice just to get Judai, it's no surprise.
  • Mr. Fanservice: All three protagonists, mostly due to their mature, handsome and good-looking appearances.
  • Never Say "Die": The dub never says the word 'death' or 'die', but at least it does not try and make half-baked excuses for what happens when buildings fall on people. No death scenes are edited out.
    • Invoked with Sin World though. In the Japanese version, whoever loses the duel dies. In the dub, whoever loses lose their souls.
  • New Rules as the Plot Demands: The movie ignores many rules of the real-life game in part because many cards used in the movie were not yet printed in real life.
    • Stardust Dragon was first Special Summoned (not Synchro Summoned) by Paradox with Sin Paradox Dragon, then when Yusei took control of it and activated its effect that Tributes itself, it was able to be Special Summoned even though it was not properly Summoned before, moreover, it was Summoned in Yusei's field.
    • Judai's "Flute of Summoning Kuriboh" allowing Yugi to pick his Kuriboh from his deck.
      • This would be legal assuming they're playing by Tag Force rules - with tag team matches, duelists share a graveyard, field, and life points, and whoever last ended their turn represents that side and is in control of the field until their partner takes their turn. Yugi ended his turn before Paradox's attack, meaning he was the duelist in charge of the field at the time. But one thing tag duelists don't share is the deck, it switches out accordingly with each duelist, so it would be Yugi's deck affected by any cards that targeted it. Judai has to activate it because story-wise only he knew what it was and it was his card, but "Flute of Summoning Kuriboh" would let Yugi draw his Kuriboh without breaking any rules.
  • Nightmare Face: Paradox gives off Yami Bakura and Yami Marik vibes during the climax of the duel when he fuses with Sin Truth Dragon and makes distorted faces.
  • No One Should Survive That!: Yugi survives after Domino City is ruined thanks to Paradox. Everyone else is dead.
  • Non-Serial Movie: Played straight for the original DM anime and GX. Averted with 5Ds, but Paradox's appearance in 5Ds amounted to a cameo, where he died. The Paradox in this movie is a robot clone who also died.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Pegasus, upon turning around only to see a whole building collapsing on him.
    • Paradox gives this reaction, right before his defeat and seeing the total ATK given to Stardust Dragon from the power boost from Yugi and Judai.
      Paradox: 10,000 ATK?!
  • Our Time Travel Is Different: The Instantaneous Time Travel variety. It also seems to combine the Wormhole version.
  • Plug 'n' Play Technology: Duel disks: ones made right before the end of the world in the distant future are compatible with the ones in the modern-day.
    • To a lesser extent, the three protagonists' Duel Disks. Yugi's Battle City disk, Judai's Duel Academia disk, and the disk from Yusei's D-Wheel all work flawlessly with each other.
  • The Power of Friendship: Going by the movie title, is this really a surprise?
  • Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When the duel begins in the English Dub, each of the protagonists utter their respective catchphrase.
    Jaden: (eyes glowing) Paradox, get ready to get your game on!
    Yusei: (Signer Mark glowing) Your twisted time crusade ends here. Let's rev it up!
    Yugi: (transformed) I have just one thing to say to you, Paradox. It's time to duel!
  • Previously on…: The dub release begins with a recap of the three Yu-Gi-Oh series, including the basic setup and a few of the antagonists for each.
  • Product Placement: A newspaper in the movie shows an advert for Gold Series 2010, released on the same day the movie debuted in Japan.
  • Punny Name: The "Sin" theme (Malefic in the TCG). A number of kanjis can be read as "Shin" (which is the Japanese pronunciation of "Sin"), including 真 truth, 新 new and 神 god. Word of God says the theme is a clever combination of "sin" (罪 tsumi) and "new" (新 atarashii).invoked
  • Purple Is Powerful: Yugi's jacket and pants look closer to purple than blue in this anime, likely to differentiate him from Yusei who wears a blue jacket.
  • Race Against the Clock: The protagonists not only try to beat Paradox before Pegasus arrives at Domino City for his event after the Crimson Dragon gave everyone one more chance, but also before reality is destroyed.
  • Ragnarök Proofing: Utterly averted. There is literally nothing left in Paradox's world except himself and his allies, rubble, and an atmosphere that makes this planet look like Venus.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Judai is the hyperactive, cheerful Red to Yusei and Yugi/Yami calmer Blue. It helps that he's literally wearing a red coat while the others wear blue and purple clothes.
  • Reset Button: After Pegasus is killed by a falling building, Yugi is taken back to 30 minutes prior to the death of Pegasus so that he, Judai, and Yusei can prevent the same thing from occurring a second time, by taking down Paradox.
  • Rummage Sale Reject: Paradox's outfit is definitely an odd mix of clothes.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: How Paradox views his goal.
  • Short Film: Only 49 minutes long, though both the dubbed version and the Encore run were lengthened by 10 minutes.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Paradox wears them, although they disappear without explanation when the duel begins. Even more confusing because the official art shows Paradox without shoulder pads, and in another art, they are bolted to his outfit. Makes sense since he's a Ridiculously Human Robot made by ZONE.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: The protagonists respond by saying that given time humanity can overcome those 'contradictions' and that people have the power to change the future themselves.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Paradox wears spiky bracelets, has spikes on his shoes, even his hairstyle is a bit spiky. Then there are the... oddly placed spikes on his chest.
  • Spoiler Opening: Not the movie itself, but Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds during the period it promoted the movie with clips inserted into the OP and the ED. It spoiled quite a few things, such as Pegasus and Sugoroku being killed by the collapsing buildings, and Paradox summoning and fusing with Sin Truth Dragon. In fact, most of the plot and duel were spoiled this way. The final turn was the only turn not to be spoiled.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: This movie crosses over the first three Yu-Gi-Oh! series, but the story mostly focuses on Yusei and the cast of 5D's with all the supporting cast appearing. The plot mostly takes place in the time of the first Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime, but GX gets the shaft with Judai being the only living character to appear and his section takes place in Venice rather than anywhere from his life.
  • Suddenly Speaking: Black Magician and Black Magician Girl randomly talk after being summoned, something that they didn't even do in the Duel Monsters series.
  • Surreal Theme Tune: makemagic. One half could be called as relevant to the movie, but the other half of the song is rather rife with romantic overtones, with the chorus being about the singer wanting to take someone in their arms. It is an especially odd case because Atsushi Tamura himself mentioned that he deliberately wrote the song to be in vibe with the movie. This is only the case in the Japanese version of the film as the credits of the English version go with a Credits Medley instead.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Apparently, an incoming attack from Paradox's strongest monster provides enough time for Yusei to kick himself for failing his friends and for Judai to give him a Rousing Speech before making his own play.
  • Technology Porn: Paradox's D-Wheel during its transformation into a flying machine, with close-ups included, showing all the details. Even the protagonists are amazed at the entire sequence.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Paradox encounters Pegasus in Domino City in the midst of an event Pegasus is taking part of. What does Paradox do? Blow up the entire city, of course!
    • The protagonists are guilty of this as well. Stardust Dragon's ATK are beefed up to 10,000 for its Finishing Move! Paradox's 1750 LP couldn't help but pale in comparison.
  • Time Machine: Paradox's D-Wheel is capable to travel through time multiple times, going to the 5D's era, to the GX era, and finally to the Duel Monsters era. It's not revealed if it can travel back to the future.
  • Time Master: The Crimson Dragon aids Yusei with time travel, and later on Yugi as well.
  • Time Travel: Paradox is capable of this, and Yusei goes through a time slip during the course of the movie. It was the Crimson Dragon who helped him do so. It also brings Yugi back in time after Sugoroku and Pegasus die.
  • Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Yusei telling Judai what's happening right now in the future. The three protagonists are also confused when all three of them come together.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: The rules of time travel in the movie are very difficult to place. Judai's trump card, Elemental HERO Neos, disappears when Paradox jumps back to Yugi's time, presumably because Paradox prevented the future in which Neos would exist. Without having stopped Paradox yet, Judai gets Neos back by jumping to a time before Paradox changes history, despite the fact that Neos and the bulk of Yusei and Judai's cards wouldn't have existed in that time anyway.
  • Theme Naming: Sin Paradox Dragon, Sin Paradigm Shift, Sin Truth Dragon. May count as Genius Bonus due to a paradox turned into truth upon changing viewpoints (i.e. paradigm shift).invoked
  • Transforming Mecha: Paradox's bike transforms into a floating machine before the final duel.
  • Unusual Eyebrows: One of Paradox's eyebrows is rather bizarre, which appears to be half a tattoo and half his eyebrow.
  • Updated Re-release: The theatrical dubbed release and the Encore run of the movie in Japan have additional footage added in. The Encore run features a special 10-minute extension in 2D.
  • Villain Ball: Paradox in the duel against the heroes. At one point, he attempts to destroy Judai's Neos Knight with Sin Paradox Dragon, only to run into the usual array of Traps. He could have attacked Judai's revived Neos Knight with Stardust Dragon, leaving the heroes with 100 Life Points. If this had been the case, on Paradox's next turn, they would have lost due to the effect of Sin Truth Dragon.
  • Watching the Sunset: Paradox does this in the distant future.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Paradox wants to save the future by experimenting with history in order to find the best possible outcome. He almost ends up destroying reality doing so and has a Humans Are the Real Monsters attitude. In the dub, he wants to destroy Duel Monsters completely as that was what caused his ruined future... by killing its creator (after he's already invented it) and everyone involved in the tournament.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Only Stardust Dragon's capture was shown on-screen. How Paradox obtained the other dragons was never shown. Judai calls out Paradox for stealing Rainbow Dragon from Johan, but the plot point is never elaborated on, and the fate of the cards' original owners is not known. When one considers Paradox's methods, it couldn't have been very pleasant. A Japanese tie-in magazine and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links indicate that Paradox simply stole the dragons as the characters in the latter such as Jonouchi and Kaiba are angry that Paradox stole and corrupted their dragons.
    • Additionally, Z-One, Antinomy, and Aporia are nowhere to be seen in Paradox's future. While this may have been justified in the theater release due to spoilers for 5D's, it doesn't for the DVD release.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: To Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, & Ultraman Gaia: The Decisive Battle in Hyperspace. Both this movie and the TDG movie are crossover films involving both their respective franchises' two predecessors — Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds with Duel Monsters and GX, Ultraman Gaia with Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna, respectively. Both crossover films deal with an antagonist that travel between worlds, or in this movie's case, time travel. Hyperspace deals with Gamu being pulled into the real world thanks to a young boy's wish to meet Ultraman, at the same time leading to the creation of a monster born from a child's greed. Bonds Beyond Time deals with all three Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists confronting a time travelling villain who seeks to prevent his timeline's Bad Future.

Alternative Title(s): Yu Gi Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie

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