Anime / Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions

This page contains unmarked spoilers for the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime.

Back to the stage of battle...

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Darkside of Dimensions is a Yu-Gi-Oh! movie to commemorate the franchise's 20th anniversary. It was released in Japan on April 23, 2016, with other territories receiving the film later in the year. The US got the film on January 20, 2017. Kazuki Takahashi is the executive producer of the film and is in charge of the designs, script, and story, making this the first movie in the franchise with the direct involvement of its creator.

The movie takes place six months after the original manga in the Japanese version and one year after the anime dub in the West. With the Pharaoh departed, Yugi Mutou and his friends resume a normal lifestyle. However, all of that changes when they encounter a mysterious classmate, Aigami, who possesses a connection to the Pharaoh's homeland. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba, having lost a powerful rival, begins a hunt for the Millennium Puzzle that draws him into conflict from both sides...

A two-part prequel manga, entitled Yu-Gi-Oh! TRANSCEND GAME, was released in the two weeks preceding the movie, explaining the Duel Links VR system, how it works, and what Kaiba hopes to achieve with it, while also contending with Sera and Aigami attempting to thwart his plans.

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This movie provides examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Egyptian Gods, several of Kaiba and Yugi's monsters, Kaiba's machines and plane, and Aigami's cubic monsters are all 3D CG creations.
• Aborted Arc: Jonouchi's quest for a better Duel Disk goes nowhere. By the end of the movie he's still trying to pay for one.
• Abusive Parents: Aigami and Sera lived with an abusive man before Shadi rescued and raised them.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Dark Magician's clothes are black and his hair is white, in contrast to the manga where his clothes are blue and red and his hair is blond and the second anime where his clothes are purple and he's fair-skinned. This corresponds with the fifth OCG artwork of the monster drawn by Kazuki Takahashi himself. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is also white instead of light blue with white highlights.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the manga Jonouchi was an amazing fighter who clobbered Bandit Keith in a fight as well as a powerful duelist. The anime version of him was humiliated often, had more losses, and couldn't beat Bandit Keith or Kaiba in a fight, but still had impressive moments and wins in between. Darkside of Dimensions Zig Zags this; on one hand, Jonouchi does nothing of importance, is told he's worthless for failing to escape Aigami's dimension and has to be rescued, wears a dog suit like he did in the anime to help pay for a new duel disk, and doesn't get to fight or duel. On the other hand, the bullies attacking Aigami split as soon as he gets involved, and he does try to punch Aigami's lights out. The dub gave him a moment of awesome by changing the mechanics of Aigami's dimension and implying that Joey broke out on his own, if at the last second.
• All There in the Manual: The prequel manga explains the VR system, how it works, and what Kaiba hopes to achieve with it.
  • In an interesting variation, unlike every other incarnation of the franchise, this movie actually averts Explaining Your Power to the Enemy with many of the new cards it introduces, meaning that viewers might need to look up the card effects themselves to be able to follow some of the moves in the duels
• Almost Dead Guy: Shadi gives Aigami the Quantum Cube and some last advice, but is killed before he can finish it.
• Alternate Continuity: It was written as a sequel to the manga timeline and not the anime timeline, instead of starting the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Kaiba was unable to let go of his obsession with beating Atem while acknowledging Yugi as a duelist due to being absent for the Ceremonial Duel. This results in the plot of the movie. The English Dub instead takes a Broad Strokes approach.
• Alternate Personality Punishment: Aigami goes after Bakura for Yami Bakura's actions. Bakura tries to explain that it wasn't him who did that, although he apologizes anyway.
• Ambiguous Situation: The movie ends with Seto successfully breaching through to the afterlife. He has Aigami's Quantum Cube, but the movie leaves it up in the air as to whether going to the afterlife made him dead as well, and whether or not he'll win against Atem when he finally duels him. Complicating matters further is that he leaves KaibaCorp in Mokuba's hands, suggesting he may not return right away, if at all.
• Animation Bump: In all the years of Yu-Gi-Oh anime, the artwork and animation has never looked as impressive nor as beautiful as it does in this movie.
• Another Dimension: Aigami's Quantum Cube can trap people in other dimensions. Anyone not part of the dimension originally will die, and he wants to stop Kaiba and Yugi because if the Pharaoh is reborn into the world, he and the rest of the Plana will lose their powers and be bound to the world they're in.
• Aroused by Their Voice: Yugi and his friends attribute Bakura's popularity with the ladies to his I Am Very British accent.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: After talking about programming every card and strategy Atem could use, Kaiba finishes off the list by saying his perfectly-coiffed hair took the longest to render.
• Art Evolution:
  • The characters have received redesigns to bring them in line with the current art style of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL and Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V.
    • They are also more in-line with Takahashi's current style, where the characters have much more rounded features and greater attention to fine detail (as shown in the Duel Art artbook by Kazuki Takahashi)
  • The card back designs have evolved from simply being black ovals on white to accurate representations of the current Konami-produced cards.
• Artifact of Doom: The Quantum Cube is an eighth Millennium Item, and can directly erase people from existence and send them to other dimensions.
• Asshole Victim: The Kudaragi gang, who try to harass Aigami and end up being sent to a different dimension.
• As You Know: Lampshaded twice. After Kaiba loads the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle into the machine that will reassemble it, the space station AI explains to him how the system has scanned each system in a 3D scanner while suspended in a zero gravity field, and by recognizing the patterns in the pieces and comparing them all at once, it will be able to put the puzzle back together in only a few hours.
  Kaiba: Don't you think I know that? I invented the blasted thing.
  AI: Affirmative, but my AI has recognized your affinity for being reminded of your genius.
• Backstory Invader: Diva uses Plana magic to insert himself into Yugi's graduating class as a student named Aigami, with the others having fuzzy memories of him but sure he'd been there for a while.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • One scene early on has Kaiba apparently duel and defeat Atem, only for it to be revealed as a virtual simulation of Atem.
  • There's also a more subtle one, regarding Aigami's vendetta against Yugi and his friends. While he's watching the main characters chatting over ice cream, he makes vague mentions of revenge and eradicating evil, and that 'no one is more evil than him!' while focusing on a shot of Yugi. A few scenes later and the movie makes it clear that he wasn't talking about Yugi at all: his real target is Bakura.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: According to Shadi, the Rod, Eye, and Ring are prone to evil, the Necklace, Scales, and Key are for justice, and the Puzzle has light and shadows to balance them out.
• Balance Buff: Meta-wise. Yugi and Kaiba use their trademark cards like Gaia the Fierce Knight, Vorse Raider, Dark Magician, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, etc. However, they're retrained variants of the originals that have stronger effects and sometimes higher stats, which makes them more useful in today's metagame.
• Battle Aura: Dimension Summoning requires duelists to use their spirits to summon, resulting in battle auras and screams akin to Dragon Ball Z.
• Being Watched: Bakura expresses worry about this during the discussion about reports of people vanishing. Anzu tells him it’s just his fan club. Bakura is right to worry, as not only is the one responsible for the disappearances spying on them from afar, he’s particularly focused on making Bakura his next victim.
• Best Out of Infinity: Kaiba's obsession with beating the Pharaoh really hits its summit here, culminating with him building a Magitek device to go to the afterlife to continue pestering the Pharaoh for a rematch.
• Big Bad Ensemble: While Aigami is the main villain of the movie by manipulating Yugi and trying to stop Kaiba to achieve his goals, his actions are only because of Kaiba trying to bring back Atem from the afterlife. Furthermore, the Millennium Ring corrupts Mani, and was responsible for Shadi's death, motivating Aigami. However, during the climax, it replaces both Kaiba and Aigami.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • When Aigami traps Jonouchi in another dimension, he's unable to escape and would have died if not for Atem saving him.
  • Yugi can't defeat the possessed Aigami until Atem appears and helps Yugi win the fight.
• Big Damn Movie: Even bigger than the previous movies, since it's meant to re-conclusively end the original series.
• Blasphemous Boast: In the dub Kaiba talks about how the world they live in is so poorly-constructed that he'd fire whoever was responsible, with some translations going as far as to have him say he'd kill whoever was responsible. In the official translation of Transcend Game he also talks about going to the afterlife to put an end to Atem, which could be interpreted as killing him as easily as dueling and defeating him.
• Body Horror:
  • In Ryo's flashback to how he got the Millennium Ring, the artifact fuses into his skin and protrudes from under his chest.
  • Most of the people Aigami erases dissolve head-first.
  • At the climax, the Millennium Ring possesses Aigami and he turns into a horrifying monster◊ with cubes for eyes.
• Bowdlerise: In the dub the Kudaragi gang just bullies Aigami, while in the original they bully him, sexually harass him, and comment on how cute he looks.
• Breaking Old Trends: This movie marks the first time that the Life Point gauge starts at 8000 (as is the standard for the real life card game) rather than 4000.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Implied. In the manga, Yugi, as smart as he was at games, was Book Dumb to the point that his mother gets onto him for not focusing on his homework, and was ranked 372 in the achievement test scores. In this movie, he apparently took his schooling very seriously enough to be the school valedictorian. For a guy who had a mentality of a kid despite being 16 with a large dose of Character Development, this is quite impressive.
• Bring My Brown Pants: In the dub, when Kaiba demonstrates his new hologram technology by simulating the crash of a fighter jet, Joey shouts out "You owe me a new pair of drawers."
• Broad Strokes: Officially, the movie takes place in the manga continuity. However, some character designs and personalities take cues from the anime, and a couple plot points foreign to the manga that the anime created (a virtual world being a thing, Kaiba knowing Atem's name, Kaiba's extremely advanced tech) are here.
• Brought Down to Normal: At the end of the movie, due to Atem appearing in the physical world once more, Aigami, Sera, Mani, and the other Plana children lose their powers.
• The Bully: Kudaragi leads a gang of them, and they harass Aigami early on before he sends them to another dimension.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • The Millennium Puzzle being excavated out from the site of the Ceremonial Battle is a plot point. The Millennium Ring also returns.
  • At the end of the original manga and anime, the Egyptian God Cards were presumed to have been either taken into the afterlife along with Atem or buried underground with the Millennium Items. Kaiba summons Obelisk the Tormentor to use against Aigami.
• Canon Foreigner: Aigami, Sera, Mani, and the Kudaragi gang are all movie-exclusive.
• Canon Immigrant: Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon-modeled jet from the anime is worked into the movie, though it’s remodeled to be a bit more aerodynamic.
• Characterization Marches On: If his graduation speech is anything to go by, Yugi has taken his schoolwork more seriously than he used to. He also isn't as invested in Duel Monsters or games as he used to be, only picking up his old deck because Kaiba demanded a rematch. Despite that, it's clear he's made some additions in the interim, and hasn't lost the edge he gained from defeating Atem at all.
• Children Are Innocent: Shadi sees this as a reason for giving the Plana their powers, as children are not yet corrupted by the world and can see things adults can't.
• The Chosen One: Shadi saw Aigami as an equal to Yugi, and he, Sera, and Mani were instructed about the Millennium Items and other dimensions as a result.
• Conflict Killer: The Millennium Ring displaces both Kaiba and Aigami as antagonists, possessing the latter and serving as the final opponent.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • Kisara appears for a single panel in Transcend Game, but not the movie itself.
  • The Ishtars' only appearance is in a flashback to the Ceremonial Duel.
  • Some manga-only characters, such as Mr. Karita and Mr. Clown, cameo early on.
  • Ryuzaki and Haga cameo together at Kaiba Land.
  • Scott Irvine cameos in Transcend Game and the movie.
• Continuity Lockout: Since the movie takes place after the series' end, it assumes you've either read the manga or watched the anime. At the same time, however, the movie largerly avoids making references to the plot of the series itself, other than the final Duel between Atem and Yugi. This was done presumably as to not conflict too much with the timeline of the anime, which has several major differences with the manga and is the medium the majority of movie-watchers are probably familiar with.
• Continuity Nod: The prequel shows that Kaiba has a gallery showcasing all of the previous versions of the Duel Disk, even the "thrown" model that was only used in Duelist Kingdom.
• Cool Airship: In Transcend Game, many guilds in KaibaCorp's VRMMORPG ride one of these to face down other guilds riding other cool airships. Kaiba gets his own personal Cool Airship that can be summed up as "rocket-powered Blue-Eyes White Dragon head".
• The Corruption: The Millennium Ring brings out the darkness in Mani and Aigami's hearts, leading them to try and kill Ryo Bakura even after he explains that he didn't kill Shadi.
• Cosmetically-Advanced Prequel: The technology created by Kaiba in this film, particularly his new Duel Disk, surpasses anything shown in the Yu-Gi-Oh! sequel series up to ARC-V.
• Creepy Child: In the prequel manga Sera has knowledge beyond her years, and claims to hear voices from the netherworld. She's also a skilled manipulator, challenges Kaiba to the technological equivalent of a Shadow Game, and is working with Aigami. In the movie itself, though, she's a hero and tries to stop Aigami's path to darkness.
• Cyberspace: The prequel manga, TRANSCEND GAME, focuses heavily on Kaiba Corp's latest creation, Duel Links, a VRMMO that allows duelists to compete with players all over the world in a virtual space using digital cards. This would later become the inspiration for a real-life video game, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links.
• Cycle of Hurting: This is how Yugi beats Diva in their duel. His Dimension trap trio makes it so Diva's monster must keep attacking if Yugi has a monster on the field, Yugi's monster cannot be destroyed in battle, and Diva takes the damage Yugi would ordinarily take from the two monsters clashing. The end result is that Diva is finished in three repetitions.
• Darker and Edgier: The movie eclipses Pyramid of Light as the darkest one in the series, making this the darkest dub-related thing as well. This is most notable with the third English trailer, which is played completely straight and with a focus on drama, not duels.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Kaiba is the main character of the film, even featuring more prominently in the poster than Yugi. Transcend Game takes it even further, as Yugi and his friends don't appear at all.
  • The film also doubles as one of these for Yugi, who is able to step out from under Atem's shadow and away from his guidance for the first time since he left.
• Deadly Euphemism: Ryo Bakura's father was 'lost that day' (dub) after putting on the Ring and getting attacked by Yami Bakura's shadows.
• Death Is Cheap: Almost everyone killed or banished to the other dimensions returns by the end of the movie.
• Demonic Possession: Mani is briefly possessed by the Millennium Ring. The Millennium Ring forcibly possesses Aigami near the climax, setting up the final duel of the movie.
• Demoted to Extra: Zig-zagged with Ryou Bakura and played straight with Duke Devlin. In the anime Bakura was demoted to a side character who occasionally had a role in the plot until the Millennium World Arc, while in the manga he was more prominent. In the film, Bakura has a prominent role in Aigami's backstory and hangs out with Yugi and friends frequently, but is then banished for the last third of the movie and needs to be rescued. Duke was a main character in several seasons of the anime and a side character the manga, but is reduced to a minor character in this film as he only appears in 3 scenes.
• Deus ex Machina: Near-literal examples when Kaiba spontaneously summons Obelisk against Aigami when he's on the ropes, and in Yugi and Kaiba's tag duel against Aigami Atem returns to save the day when all is lost.
  • Not so much a Deus Ex Machina when it comes to Kaiba summoning Obelisk. It's established that the Pharaoh and their descendants are capable of calling upon the Gods. As Kaiba is a descendant of Priest Seto (who became Pharaoh after Atem), he has the power to wield the Gods (also explaining why he can use Obelisk in the original manga/anime).
• Dismantled MacGuffin: Aigami steals two of the Millennium Puzzle pieces so Kaiba can't complete it.
• Distressed Dude: Kaiba captures Aigami and takes him to Kaiba Land to duel him for the missing Puzzle pieces.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole:
  • The English dub of movie is treated as taking place after the anime rather than the manga, turning Kaiba’s absence from the Ceremonial Duel into one of these. The plot hinges on Kaiba not knowing that Atem’s soul isn’t in the Millennium Puzzle anymore, and he doesn’t accept the real Yugi as a Worthy Opponent like Atem until after their duel in the movie, contradicting the anime having him at the Ceremonial Duel to witness Yugi surpass Atem before sending the latter to the afterlife.
  • The dub heavily implies Ryou Bakura's father was killed by the Ring, though he's apparently alive but offscreen in both the manga and anime.
  • In the dub, Tristan states that Joey got his duel disk confiscated for polishing it in class a week ago, and he only manages to get it back a bit later. However, this contradicts an earlier scene that showed Joey biking to school while carrying his duel disk in a basket. In the original, Tristan simply says that Joey needs to get his duel disk back after it was confiscated by a teacher, implying he only lost it earlier that same day.
• Dub Name Change:
  • The English dub aligns with the 4Kids dub names as opposed to the manga names for the sake of audience familiarity, despite the movie following the manga continuity closer. However, promotional material indicates that the English dub will be treated as being in the continuity of the anime, explaining this.
  • Kudaragi's name was changed to Scud.
  • The stat screens that appear when monsters are summoned or do damage present the names that the monsters have in the English TCG rather than the Japanese OCG, even in the original Japanese version. For example, Yugi summoning Black Magician and Black Magician Girl will be accompanied with the labels "Dark Magician" and "Dark Magician Girl".
• Duels Decide Everything:
  • Diva tries to avert this in his first encounter with Kaiba over the Millenium Puzzle, boasting that his power will let him send Kaiba off to another dimension. This fails because Kaiba's new duel disk lets him nullify Diva's powers through sheer willpower, forcing Diva to duel him for the puzzle pieces. This is also averted by Kaiba, who was just stalling so Mokuba could take off with the pieces as soon as proper transport arrived. Both sides call off the duel as soon as Diva realizes he's been played.
  • Played straight for the rest of the movie, naturally. Diva can only be forced to give up one of the pieces he stole through a duel, and Kaiba challenges Yugi for the other piece. And of course, the final battle to save the world is a duel that Kaiba and Yugi challenge Diva to, which he accepts because the Millennium Ring’s corruption has turned him into a sadist like Dark Marik who enjoys tormenting his opponents in Shadow Games.
• Evasive Fight-Thread Episode: Yugi and Kaiba's duel is inconclusive, with Yugi apparently wiping him out, Kaiba somehow hanging on, and Aigami interrupting it before it can conclude. The movie also ends just before Kaiba and Atem duel.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: The movie opens with shots of multiple parallel Earths being disintegrated by a golden light as it cuts to the Earth the movie takes place on.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Averted, unlike every other entry in the franchise. The characters actually spend very little time in the duels explaining their cards and effects this time around. With some cards it can even create a case of All There in the Manual for viewers not already familiar with the card effects.
• Expy:
  • Aigami is one to Ryo Bakura, having transferred to Yugi's class under mysterious circumstances and possessing mysterious powers. Ryo is even shown befriending him in pre-release screenshots, highlighting the similarities.
  • Most of the monsters summoned by Yugi and Kaiba in this movie are slightly modified designs from classic monsters, with updated effects to make them more effective. Pandemic Dragon, being a virus-themed dragon with an effect that destroys monsters based on their attack points, could be one to Death Virus Dragon.
• Eye Scream: When Kaiba uses Obelisk's effect against Aigami, Obelisk delivers a Megaton Punch right in Buster Gundil's eye.
• Fake Memories: Aigami altered the memories of everyone in Domino City, implanting the notion that he was a new student at Domino High School.
• Fanservice Pack: Due to a combination of improved animation, tweaked art style, and the characters being slightly older.
  • Yugi is noticeably taller and more mature-looking, with more of a bishounen vibe. His eyes have also changed shape.
  • Kaiba is now sporting a tighter-fitting shirt which shows off a very well-developed chest and abs.
  • Anzu has a slightly different (and more flattering) hairstyle, more adult facial features, and wears tighter/more revealing clothes. She has also gained at least three cup sizes, with a corresponding increase in bounciness.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Many plot threads happen simultaneously, as well as flashbacks, resulting in many abrupt scene changes.
• Fun with Acronyms: The first letter of the names of the new Magician Girls, Berry, Lemon, Apple, Choco, and Kiwi, spell out the word "BLACK", as in, Black Magician Girl, Dark Magician Girl's Japanese name.
• Gonk: Two of the Kudaragi gang members, particularly their leader, have nonstandard or ugly designs.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: At first, Aigami's powers utilize a golden light. Once the Millennium Ring corrupts him and Mani, his powers turn a shadowy purple instead.
• Happy Ending Override: Both the manga and anime ended with a conclusively happy ending, but six months later, trouble is afoot again. Seto Kaiba refuses to let go of the Pharaoh and instigates most of the movie's plot by his obsessive desire to reassemble the Puzzle, while he, Yugi, and his friends are menaced by Aigami, who's determined to kill Kaiba and Yugi if need be to stop the Puzzle from being completed.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In their tag duel with Diva, Kaiba redirects an attack that would have eliminated Yugi, eliminating himself instead, since the only hope they have is Yugi bringing Atem back.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Aigami tries to prevent Atem's return, but Aigami's attempt to get rid of Kaiba and then Yugi, eventually leads to Atem's return in a duel against Aigami. A duel that wouldn't have happened if Aigami and the others just live in peace, as outside that duel, Yugi and Kaiba had no way to bring Atem back. (This is actually hinted at during the Transcend Game prequel manga, as even at that point Kaiba is already willing to go to the afterlife just to duel Atem, meaning he does not see any other way, at least not the feasible ones.)
• How Much More Can He Take?: After three physically exhausting duels against Aigami and Kaiba in a row, one of which is a Shadow Game, Yugi finally reaches his limit and is about to lose until Atem saves him.
• Ignored Aesop: Kaiba spends much of the film in an obsessive state, trying futilely to see Atem while being told that Atem has moved on and isn't coming back, with Yugi recompleting the Puzzle to prove it. Throughout the movie Yugi and his friends have moved on from the loss, Yugi gives Kaiba a speech directly telling him to move on, and Atem himself takes the Puzzle to the afterlife with him. Kaiba then decides that if he can't bring Atem back, he'll meet Atem by going to the afterlife instead, leaving Mokuba to run his company in his stead.
• Inconsistent Dub: An unusual example that applies to the original version but not the English dub. When monsters are summoned or do damage, the stat screen reads the name they have in the English TCG, even if that name is a Dub Name Change from the Japanese OCG, rather than a translation of the latter. As such, the Japanese version has peculiarities like Yugi saying Black Magician and Metamor Clay Fortress while the screens read Dark Magician and Metamorphortress, and Diva referring to his monster as Direction World Super Emperor Indiora Death Volt and the screen calling it Indiora Doom Volt the Cubic Emperor.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • In the Japanese version, Yugi continues to call Diva "Aigami-kun" long after the ruse is dispelled.
  • Kaiba knows Atem's real name but often refers to him as 'Yugi'. This is arguably force of habit, since he corrects himself 'I mean Atem' later on. Interestingly the dub averts this, as Kaiba refers to Atem by either his name or 'the Pharaoh' throughout, acknowledging him as a separate person when in the dub he was the one constantly denying the supernatural.
  • Obelisk the Tormentor is not a monster, it's a god (as it's unaffected by Aigami's Cubic Mandala, which negates monster effects).
• Lighter and Softer: In contrast to the manga's frequent depictions of blood and death, characters are sent to other dimensions and bloodlessly attacked by shadows, though they can still die if not rescued, and Aigami's backstory involves Dark Bakura committing murder in front of children. In the manga, if the Milleniun Ring deemed someone unworthy of wearing it, it would stab its spikes inside their chest before making them burst into flames. Here, Ryou's dad is merely thrown by evil spirits that come from within the Ring.
• Living MacGuffin: The Pharaoh leaving sparked the Plana's powers, and him returning will cause them to lose their powers.
• Long-Runner Tech Marches On: Back in the original series, the best Duel Disk technology ever progressed was with plain old Solid Vision, which was just hologram technology for monsters. Fast forward to Dark Side of Dimensions, which chronologically takes place just six months after the manga ends, and Kaiba Corp. suddenly has super-advanced VRMMOs^note  Slightly less ridiculous in the anime continuity, but since the Virtual World arcs didn't exist in the manga, the manga continuity didn't have this technology, supercomputers, and cloud-based technology evocative of real-life modern day. Even the designs are streamlined to match the modern-day perception of "futuristic".
  • In non-duelist-related tech, too. The manga took place in 1996-98, and when KC's duel-tech wasn't involved had a standard 90s tech level, with VHS tapes and the occasional flip phone. In this movie, made in 2016 but ostensibly taking place in the manga timeline of 1999, Yugi reads the news on a modern tablet and Mokuba uses what appears to be an iPhone.
• Made of Evil: The Millennium Ring is so evil and powerful that even after Zorc and Yami Bakura are gone, it turns Mani evil, corrupts Aigami with its power, and tries to make them kill Ryou.
• Magic from Technology: Kaiba's VR tech, when combined with his own brainwaves, is so advanced that it can transcend dimensions, including breaking into the afterlife.
• Magikarp Power: When Sera duels Kaiba in the latter half of the prequel, Sera kicks off with her ace monster, an 8800 Pulse beatstick. Kaiba brings out his ace, the iconic Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which has a Pulse of... 3000. Sera moves in immediately and blows up Blue-Eyes, but Kaiba simply laughs at it; not only does Blue-Eyes survive and not a scratch is left on Kaiba, its Pulse power-leaps to 19900 and curbstomps Sera.
• Manipulative Bastard: In the prequel manga, Sera manipulates Kaiba by playing to his insecurities about the Pharaoh and his own skills, saying he'll never become the duel king—but if he links with the voice she hears from the netherworld, perhaps he can do something. Kaiba attempting to do so nearly kills him, which is what she and Aigami were planning to begin with. Her character profile for the movie states that she advises Aigami on his mission while also befriending Yugi.
• Mind Screw: The other dimensions are very mindscrewy in appearance and function; anyone not part of them, to begin with, will disintegrate, and one such dimension is apparently the afterlife. Aigami's Quantum Cube—and how Kaiba can counteract it with his new duel disk—are also given rather vague explanations that assume the viewer has an understanding of quantum mechanics.
• Misplaced Retribution: Aigami wants to kill Bakura because he believes he killed Shadi, while Yami Bakura is the one that actually killed him.
• Muggles Do It Better: Kaiba's technology is so advanced that it solves the Puzzle in 5 and a half hours, while it took Yugi eight years to do the same. Potentially subverted in that Yugi was probably being tested by the puzzle at the same time, he was a child, and during the time of DSOD, the puzzle no longer has powers. Yugi also managed to solve the puzzle very quickly in a burning building (after either a duel with a possessed Bandit Keith in the anime or Duke Devlin's father accidentally sets fire to the Black Clown game shop) before the Battle City arc.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Diva's goal to make a better world by eradicating evil from it is similar to Dartz's goal from the anime.
  • Kaiba's duel against the virtual recreation of Atem is similar to their first on-screen duel from Pyramid of Light, right down to the point where Kaiba has a three-headed Blue-Eyes Fusion Monster and raising its ATK to 9000.
  • Yugi reaching his limit after three consecutive duels is similar to Mai's Victory by Endurance against Jonouchi in season 4 of the anime, where he was exhausted after a physical duel against Valon and lost to Mai from fatigue.
  • The flashback to the Ceremonial Duel uses the characters' old hairstyles and eye designs, as well as the anime's coloration for their outfits.
  • Joey has to work for Ryuji's dad while wearing a dog costume, referencing Ryuji forcing him to wear a similar costume in the anime (which didn't happen in the manga).
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • In the prequel manga, Sera would have manipulated Kaiba into accidentally killing himself had Mokuba not been near the power main, letting him shut it down before it was too late.
  • In the final duel, the possessed Aigami has defeated Kaiba and whittles down Yugi's LP and strength, to the point of almost dissipating. Then Atem enters the scene and helps Yugi summon Palladium Oracle Mahad to defeat Aigami and the Ring.
• New Rules as the Plot Demands: For the sake of streamlining the Duels so they can move as fast as real life ones now do without the new summoning mechanics of the later installments, Aigami introduces Dimension Duels, in which the Duelists will Dimension Summon a monster at any level without having to tribute not counting Egyptian Gods, and the battle damage is the destroyed monster’s points subtracted from the player’s Life Points rather than the difference between the monsters’ attack points.
  • Even outside of Dimension Duels, the movie uses the game's modern ruleset rather than Battle City's: players start with 8000 Life Points, each player can control 5 monsters and 5 Spells/Traps instead of just 5 cards total, more than 1 Trap can be activated per turn, Fusion and Ritual monsters are physical cards with unique effects, and a monster being summoned during an attack produces a replay rather than intercepting the attack.
• New Transfer Student: Aigami transfers to Yugi's class under mysterious circumstances. He ended up invoking this by messing with everyone's memories.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Most of the problems in the movie can be directly traced back to Kaiba and Shadi. Kaiba's excavation team finds the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle, leading him to his obsessive quest to duel the Pharaoh, while Shadi gave Aigami his cube, his powers, and a very twisted worldview, and also gave Ryo the Ring.
  • It's revealed Yugi sending the Pharaoh back to the afterlife led to Aigami and his group gaining their powers, which leads to most of the movie's primary conflict.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Aigami tries to disintegrate Kaiba almost immediately, but is repelled and forced to duel him instead.
• No Ontological Inertia: Averted. The evil influence of the Millennium Ring still exists even after Yami Bakura and Zorc Necrophades are defeated. The Ring has been that corrupted.
• No-Paper Future: Kaiba uses a completely virtual deck, while Yugi still uses physical cards.
• No-Sell: Kaiba's technology lets him shrug off Diva's attempt to banish him.
• Numerological Motif: In Kaiba's duel with virtual Atem, 4500.
  • Kaiba summoned a 4500 ATK Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
  • Virtual Atem summons Celtic Guard of Noble Arms (2100 ATK) which can special summon Celtic Guardian (1400 ATK), of which both attacked Kaiba directly (3500 damage) and reduced his Life Points from 8000 to 4500.
  • Virtual Atem's Life Points dropped to 4500 as well when Kaiba summoned Kaiser Vorse Raider to attack and destroy Celtic Guardian for 500 damage.
  • As he controls Dark Magician, virtual Atem activates Magical Dimension to summon Dark Magician Girl and destroy Kaiser Vorse Raider. Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl has a total of 4500 ATK combined.
  • When Neo Blue-Eyes attacked, virtual Atem activates Dimensional Reflector (a Continuous Trap) to banish both Dark Magicians and special summon it as a monster with ATK and DEF equal to Neo Blue-Eyes' ATK (4500).
  • Dimension Reflector has an effect to inflict battle damage to the opponent equal to its gained ATK when activated, so it's about to give Kaiba 4500 damage.
  • Kaiba negates Dimension Reflector's battle damage effect with Enhanced Counter which'd also increase one of his monsters' ATK by that value until the end of the Battle Phase. He uses this effect to increase Neo Blue-Eyes' ATK by 4500, doubling it at 9000.
  • Neo Blue-Eyes attacked and destroyed the 4500 ATK Dimension Reflector, giving virtual Atem 4500 battle damage.
• Oh, Crap!: Aigami is rightly shocked when Kaiba summons Obelisk the Tormentor. Moreso when Obelisk is immune to his Cubic Mandala.
• Older and Wiser: Yugi has matured a great deal, while physically looking older as well. His eyes have even changed shape.
• Ominous Cube: The Quantum Cube grants Reality Warping powers to the Plana, a group of children that were protected by Shadi.
• Once More, with Clarity: While spying on Yugi and friends, Aigami has a brief flashback to what happened in Egypt years ago. It isn't until halfway through the movie that we see what happened in full.
• One-Winged Angel: The Ring-possessed Aigami turns into a horrifying monster with cubes for eyes.
  Kaiba: Oof. He's looked better.
• Out of Focus: Jonouchi, Honda, and Anzu don't do much but act as support for Yugi. Bakura is important to Aigami's backstory but is banished shortly after this is revealed.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Jonouchi and Honda are mainly used as this; there's an entire montage of bad stuff happening to Jonouchi on the way to school and their overall role is comic relief.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Despite passing into the afterlife, Atem features heavily in the plot, as Kaiba's goal is to resurrect and duel him, the Plana can't be banished without him, and Aigami's goal is to prevent his return. And he does appear in the climax, taking over for Yugi for the final move.
  • Dark Bakura is seen in a flashback of how Ryo got the Millennium Ring.
  • Shadi is only shown in flashbacks and is revealed to have taken care of Aigami, Sera, and other struggling children in Egypt.
• Power Levels: Unlike in actual Duel Monsters, KaibaCorp's dueling VRMMORPG bases the strength of a Monster on that of the power of the brainwaves outsourced by the player. As a result, the numbers can get pretty arbitrary.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Ryou Bakura finds it difficult to relax with his friends knowing Aigami can make people vanish, and could be watching them as they speak. He is watching them as they speak, and Aigami has his eye on Bakura specifically.
  • Diva gives one of the two puzzle pieces he stole to Sera, on the off chance someone manages to get the piece he has, which eventually does happen. He didn't anticipate her giving the final piece to Yugi, though.
• Proscenium Reveal: Kaiba duels and defeats Atem early in the film, only for the background to dissolve and reveal it was just an elaborate simulation Kaiba developed in anticipation of the real thing.
• Reality Warper: Aigami and the Plana are low-level versions of this, being able to teleport, send people to other dimensions, and travel between dimensions themselves. When the Ring corrupts Aigami, it enables him to twist dimensions, call Shadow Games, and disintegrate much of reality.
• Retcon:
  • The Puzzle originally fell in a complete piece, but in the movie it explicitly shatters as it falls, and assembling its pieces is a major plot point.
  • Shadi's appearance is changed slightly, he raised Aigami, Sera, Mani, and the Plana, and he has powers he's never had before in any continuity, such as wielding the Quantum Cube, which can directly erase people from existence and send them to other dimensions. He can also transfer his powers to others, but they will lose them if the Pharaoh is reborn into the world a second time.
  • In the manga it was stated pretty clearly that as long as Bakura didn't wear the Ring it couldn't do any harm, but in this movie it corrupts several people without the need to wear it, in Aigami's case without even needing to touch it.
• Revenge: Aigami initially desires revenge on Bakura for Dark Bakura killing Shadi.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Aigami kinda pulls one on himself by asking Yugi if he can comprehend the idea of a world without hate, before deciding that perhaps he can.
• Russian Reversal: In the dub, Shadi says to Bakura's father that you don't possess the Millennium Ring; it possesses you.
• Sanity Slippage: In the prequel manga, Transcend Game, Kaiba's behavior is erratic as he attempts to contact Atem, and Kaiba is so focused on this goal he doesn't even notice that breaking the dimensions would kill him. This behavior is pulled back and calmer in the film itself, though the nature of Kaiba's goal remains debated.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Kaiba is able to use KaibaCorp to keep tabs on everyone in Domino City, tracking their movements and keeping them under constant video surveillance without their knowledge, and he's able to use his personal forces to capture Aigami and force him into a duel for his Puzzle piece. It should also be noted that Aigami is essentially a kidnapper and a murderer and Kaiba apparently has no obligation to hand him over to the authorities.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Inverted with Pegasus as this movie is treated as a sequel to the original manga rather than the anime whereas in the anime, Pegasus was Spared By Adaptation and appears in two movies where he was involved in some way. In the manga, Bakura personally kills Pegasus after the latter loses a Shadow Game with Yami Yugi and did not receive a Penalty Game from him.
• Serial Escalation: Aigami first tries to prevent the Puzzle from being found and completed by stealing its pieces. When that fails, he tries to kill Kaiba, who plans to put the Puzzle back together to duel Atem. When that fails, he tries to kill Yugi, as killing him would ensure the Pharaoh had no vessel to return to, as well as kill Bakura to get revenge for Shadi. When even that fails, the Millennium Ring possesses him and goads him to try and kill both Kaiba and Yugi.
• Ship Tease: There are a couple Yugi/Anzu moments throughout the movie, with them being physically close and having a Held Gaze before high-fiving.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: During their climactic duel, Yugi promptly shuts down Diva's attempt to make him join his cause by pointing out that, for someone who desires a world without hatred, Diva seems utterly driven by it, and that anyone that tries to create peace using hate will never succeed.
• Sinister Surveillance: Thanks to Kaiba, nobody in Domino City can have citizenship without a Duel Disk. His VR system tracks players by their disks and brainwaves, making it possible for him to find Aigami even though he can teleport.
• Skeptic No Longer: Kaiba, in the dub, was infamous for constantly denying any of the magic he encountered after season 1 and chalking it up to faulty holograms, illusions, and other excuses, only stopping towards the tail end of season 5. Even in the original manga, which this movie is mainly based on, Kaiba expressed utter indifference to magic at best and utter denial at worst, most prominently in Battle City ^noteExcept for one occasion early on where Dark Yugi's shadow games inspired his Solid Vision system.. In this movie, Kaiba actively acknowledging the existence of magic and trying to forcibly bring Atem back through the Puzzle is an integral part of the plot. It's worth noting he does not believe magic, however, to be in any way not explicable and wieldable through science, and repeatedly manages to back this up, countering Aigami's Plana powers and in the end forcing his way into the afterlife, so while he has finally accepted that magic exists, he seems to believe that technology is still superior.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Despite Aigami's backstory, universe-shattering power, and a storyline about unwillingness to accept loss, the movie is ultimately hopeful and idealistic.
• Space Elevator: Kaiba has one that can take him from the ground to a space station.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Aigami, Sera, and Mani are this to Marik, Ishizu, and Rishid. Aigami's backstory is similar to Marik's, Sera takes Ishizu's role as a sibling who wants to lead him away from darkness, and Mani is like Rishid in that he's selflessly loyal to Aigami no matter what.
• Taken for Granite: Monsters that have their effects negated by Cubic Counters are visualized this way.
• This Cannot Be!: Possessed Diva's reaction to Atem returning to end the duel is sheer disbelief.
  "This can't be! The Pharaoh has returned!"
• Time Skip: A minimal six months, but enough that lineart of Mokuba makes him look much older and preppier, with a short haircut and suit. While it's a little ambiguous what the characters' ages were in the original story, or exactly how much time has passed, they are now graduating high school.
• Time Stands Still: The Plana can freeze time for themselves and others, allowing for short conversations and longer flashbacks.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the prequel manga, Seto is so focused on seeing and dueling Atem that he listens to Sera and tries to break into the afterlife using nothing but his own brainwaves and without any sort of protection. It would have killed him if Mokuba hadn't intervened.
• Tracking Device: Kaiba's Duel Disks track and record characters' locations. He uses this feature to track down Aigami.
• Translation Nod: The stat screens that appear when a monster is summoned or damages a player read the English TCG’s Dub Name Change for that monster on the display in all versions of the movie.
• Truer to the Text: Inverted in regards to Duel Monsters; characters in the movie duel by proper Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game rules, including starting with 8000 Life Points, despite not doing so in either the anime or original manga. The pacing of duels has been appropriately increased to keep up with the increased LP.
• Uncertain Doom: Bakura's father is last seen being attacked by skull-shaped shadows and not moving afterward. Going by the manga and anime he survived, but since his role is entirely unseen and the Ring explicitly killed the unworthy in the manga, it can still be taken as ambiguous.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Kaiba's machine to enter the afterlife, which he uses over Mokuba's protests that it's an untested prototype. It gets him where he wanted to go, but whether he can come back is left ambiguous.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Jonouchi is the only one who stands up for Aigami when some bullies try to pick on him. Despite this, Aigami later banishes him to another dimension that would slowly kill him and calls Jonouchi worthless.
• Unknown Rematch Conclusion: Kaiba's goal in the movie is to bring back Atem for a rematch. The epilogue shows Kaiba succeeding in accessing the afterlife and meeting Atem again, whom he issues a wordless challenge to as the movie ends and the credits roll.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: A lot of Aigami’s dialogue about the Plana’s motives and methodology in the Japanese version references quantum mechanics, a field of science that tends to be confusing and difficult to understand even to those that study it. Certain details about the nature of the Plana and why Kaiba’s new Duel Disk can counteract it and summon Obelisk the Tormentor will fly over the heads of anyone not familiar with quantum physics.
• Villain Teleportation: Aigami, Sera, and Mani can teleport via their Plana powers, letting them get to distant places instantly.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: While Aigami and Kaiba are active in getting what they went, Yugi and his friends react to them doing things.
• Visionary Villain: Aigami believes so much in Shadi's vision of a better world beyond dimensions that he thinks Yugi's world is static and has no meaning. The Millennium Ring takes his wish even further by trying to create a new world of not only no hate, but also no anything period, a new world of darkness.
• The Voiceless: The virtual Atem banters with Kaiba in the opening simulation, but the real Atem doesn't say a word.
• We Can Rule Together: Even though Aigami seems to think that Humans Are the Real Monsters, he decides that Yugi may be an exception and suggests that they could join forces to create a world without hate. Yugi tells him to shove it; since he's driven by hate, how can he create a world without hate?
  Aigami: Friendship...your kind knows nothing of friendship, just of cruelty! And that is why you must be banished! Because taking you down is the only way to guarantee the promise of the Plana. The promise of a better world...a world without hate. Can you even comprehend such a place? Where instead of using people, you are of use to them? Maybe you can, Yugi Muto. Maybe you are the exception. Maybe you should join us...and together, we can remake this world into one without hate, where no one has to live a single moment of fear, a world of our own design.
  Yugi: I'll never join you. You say that we hate. Well, from what I've seen, that's all that fuels you. So there's no way you could create a world without it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The Kudaragi gang's fate is never revealed even after other characters are freed from the dimensions.
  • Besides the Puzzle and Ring the other Millennium Items' fates are a mystery.
  • The Egyptian God Cards were mentioned to have left the world alongside the Pharaoh, but how Kaiba manages to summon Obelisk is only vaguely explained with nothing later to address the implications.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: This is presumably the reason why the Millennium Ring tries to get Aigami and Mani to kill Ryo.

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