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// On :Monday, March 21, 2016
Hey guys, kanna here. Hope everything is going well for you guys. After a lot of things going on that have kept me from posting, I am back! And in honor of the new Yu-Gi-Oh movie coming out next month, The Dark Side of Dimensions, I've decided to dedicate these next couple of Anime Mondays to Yu-Gi-Oh.
And what better place to start with than the actual first season of the anime, season 0.
Where to start with this...it's kind of hard to say, since I did a general overview of Yu-Gi-Oh already. So we know how it started, but where did Season 0 come about? And why is it called that, even though it's technically the first season?
Well, Season 0 wasn't even called Season 0. That's just a name that the fans came up with. It was literally just called Yu-Gi-Oh or 湯☆戯☆王. Fans often referred to or subtitled this as "Season 0," "A Game of Darkness," or "The First Season." It was the first anime adaptation of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga series.
This anime was never aired outside of Japan, and even now, videos of it are incredibly hard to find. It has only been released on VHS in seven volumes and had no further rebroadcasts in Japanese anime stations. It's hard to find videos unless you want to watch bootlegs. This series, later to become known as "Yu-Gi-Oh Season Zero," was loosely based off of the first seven volumes of the manga. The series went for twenty-seven episodes and also got a short movie, which, like the series, was never aired outside Japan or rebroadcast. It was pretty dark, even with elements from the manga toned down.
This anime had twenty-seven episodes, airing from April 4, 1998 to October 10, 1998. It also got a short movie. The characters all looked and sounded pretty different, too, and they didn't go by their names from the English dub (to be expected, since there names don't entirely translate into Japanese). Tea Gardner was originally Anzu Mazaki, Joey Wheeler was known as Jonouchi Katsuya, and Tristan Taylor was known as Honda Hiroto. As to how they looked...
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| Anzu Mazaki/Tea Gardner |
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| Jounouchi Katsuya/Joey Wheeler |
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| Honda Hiroto/Tristan Taylor |
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| Yugi Muto |
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| Yami Yugi (well, there's a face that will haunt my nightmares) |
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| Seto Kaiba |
Oh, and there was even an exclusive character to this season, Miho Nosaka:
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| Miho Nosaka |
So...yeah. The voice actors are different from the Yu-Gi-Oh we all know and love, as well. They sound...interesting. Not sure if it's in a good or bad way, but they do sound interesting. Some of the voices fit the characters, others don't. It depends on your opinion.
As for characterization, it's not that far off. Yugi is portrayed as this guy who loves games, but hates violence; Jounouchi and Honda (you can't imagine how hard this is to write, as I'm used to typing out their English names) are portrayed as the comic relief and the bullies turned friends, Anzu is basically...Anzu, and Kaiba is portrayed as an egocentric billionaire who wants to beat Yugi by getting Yami Yugi to show himself (Kaiba's kinda obsessed as you'll see in later episodes). Miho is an exclusive character to this season, so she's portrayed as a bit of a ditz that Honda has a crush on.
So...what do I give this? 10/10
Why: The animation is great for the time. Some anime from the late 90s didn't have the best animation, so to see something like this is pretty cool.
The character voices are well done, and even if they don't suit the characters, they do sound believable enough.
It's dark in ways I can't even begin to describe, and that's what sets it apart from the Yu-Gi-Oh we know and love. There was a reason it never aired outside of Japan and why episodes of it are extremely hard to find.
Each episode is incredibly well-written, and to see the antagonist of the episode get what's coming to them in the way they've been antagonizing the protagonists is actually quite interesting. Here's an example:
See what I mean about this series being dark? And this was only from the first episode!
Sorry for the short review, but it's better than nothing, right?
Next time on Anime Mondays: Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters
