In the manga, Yugio’s first act is using a Shadow Game and subsequent Penalty Game to get much-deserved revenge on one of the bullies who had tormented Yugi earlier. When Yugi completes the ancient Egyptian pyramid-shaped Millennium Puzzle, he gets possessed by Yami Yugi (Dark Yugi), otherwise known as the Game King, Yugio. The end result is a shonen story with some dark, horror elements about a wimpy kid, Yugi Mutou. Takahashi initially wanted to create a horror story, but he switched gears. Weekly Shonen Jump released the first chapter of Kazuki Takahashi’s Yu-Gi-Oh! manga in September 1996. Let’s piece together the complicated history of this franchise: Ancient Egyptian Manga History Unlike Pokémon, which has Ash in pretty much all anime versions, the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe is extremely loosely knit together. Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG didn’t exist in Japan until 1999 (and North America got a translation in 2002).Īnd while Yu-Gi-Oh! main characters tend to be named ‘Yu’-something (and have wild hair, even by anime standards), they all aren’t Yugi. Oh, and the first anime isn’t the version that most people associate with being ‘first.’ It shows up in the third episode of the first anime adaptation. In fact, the whole ‘You just activated my trap card’ Duel Monsters card battle concept doesn’t get introduced until the second volume of the manga.

The franchise didn’t start with the trading card game, but with a 1996 manga. If you want to learn about the history of the Yu-Gi-Oh!anime series, we need to clear up some misconceptions first.

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