Most of the first 60 chapters of Yu-Gi-Oh revolve around Yugi encountering a bully, creep, or general miscreant, said miscreant beating up Yugi or one of Yugi’s friends, and then the spirit of Yu-Gi-Oh possessing Yugi and subjecting the bully to a sadistic Shadow Game as justice. Yugi’s granddad serves as his legal guardian! Somebody, please, call social services. This grandfather gave a CHILD a cursed puzzle that will turn him into the mythic JUDGE OF ALL EVIL? The master of the SHADOW GAMES? And he gave it to him under the guise of the puzzle granting this kid a wish?! Those are the words in the ancient Book of the Dead.” Here’s the direct quote, via his weirdly nonchalant internal monologue: “The one who completes that puzzle will inherit the Shadow Games and will dispense justice to all, and judge evil. Then he goes and solves it and we learn the truth - from Grandpa Mutou of all people. This poor kid just wants a friend! One! He seems nice enough, I say give Yugi a friend. Grandpa Mutou has told Yugi that the person who solves the puzzle is granted one wish. Years ago, he was given a mysterious, nigh-unsolvable puzzle called the Millennium Puzzle by his quirky old granddad - and he’s been trying to solve it for eight years. In the series’ opening chapter, we meet Yugi, a meek, nerdy kid obsessed with puzzles and games.
#Weird park scary tales wire puzzle series#
In commemoration of the series celebrating such a significant anniversary this week, here are some of the biggest, boldest, WTF moments the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga had to offer. The early volumes of the manga contain stories, plot beats, and visuals that no 11-year-old has any business being subjected to - which, of course, makes it all the radder to them when they inevitably encounter it anyway. While it became a more traditional shonen manga through development, Kazuki initially conceived it as a horror manga and those elements are extremely present in the end product. Those who have read the manga likely know where this is going, but the big secret of Yu-Gi-Oh is that its source material has its roots in horror manga. These earlier chapters instead focus on how protagonist Yugi Mutou first encounters the Millennium Puzzle, an ancient cursed game possessed by the spirit of a pharaoh who serves as the Judge of Evil (it’s a whole thing - we’ll get to it). In fact, the card game, known as “Duel Masters,” doesn’t even show up until Chapter 60). While the bulk of the manga revolves around the card game antics adapted by the anime, there’s a significant run of the story that doesn’t involve it at all.
It ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1996 to 2004 and remains one of the more popular shonen manga of all time.
What you may or may not know is that the world of Yu-Gi-Oh is derived from an absolutely buckwild manga by creator Kazuki Takahashi. Or perhaps you are familiar with it because you were (or remain) one of the millions upon millions of people who play the card game - which has had greater longevity than any other facet of the multimedia franchise - in real life. Perhaps you are familiar with it because you watched the anime (celebrating its 20th birthday this week), which depicted a world revolving around cursed puzzles, ancient pharaohs, and a battling card game that brought demons, dragons, and warriors alike to life via hologram systems.