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It May Be Time to Duel But It's Still Time to Move On

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    Copied and pasted from my LJ but this is where you can discuss the passing of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. I'm sure the episode discussion will be up soon enough.

    Yet another show ends with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters dub. I admit, I wasn't sure what to make of the show originally back in Sept 01 and the more I watched, I had this odd addiction considering how toyetic it came off. I guess seeing another 4Kids product after being impressed by Pokemon and a little peer pressure from my League Friends over the TCG made me try it. I admit, the early first season bored me but the characterization did slowly win me over. Particularly with one Seto Kaiba and his tribulations. At the end of the season, I was hooked.

    Then came season two and after seeing one of the best multi-parters with Joey/Yugi's second Duel in 03 (at the hands of Marik) and seeing the true drama unfold, made me see what a show this was: Actual drama that can compete with the best of them. Of course it also gave me some eye-opening insight--that Joey Wheeler was deeper than I ever thought possible, Kaiba came off less and less of a person and more antihero with his lack of empathy, and Marik was one son of a bee. It was one of their finest hours and mine.

    Then impressed me again with the climax of the Noah Virtual arc with the pathos as Noah tried to resist Seto's shadow (a nice jab at the original Toei series with green haired Kaiba, the second series is what the rest of the world sees as Yu-Gi-Oh!) and his father's. My favorite episode. Then came the English only movie, and the movie return records proved the fanbase was a mile wide and an inch deep. Hence I wasn't able to talk to many fans nor could I get real psychological debate. So I went at it, alone through the bizarre Doma arc and finally to Memory World and here we are.

    I know the show came off as a DBZ clone, particularly with the annoying pacing, but as I said, the characterization charmed and disarmed you into appreciating it anyway. It certainly surpasses DBZ's mind-numbing qualities or anything else that a fighting drama (as it seems to be the genre) can produce. Of course, seeing the sequel (GX) such as it is, it makes me grieve more so. No doubt I'll be busy writing to show my love in that way.

    Despite 4Kids' tampering (and censoring by Kids WB), they kept the spirit of the episodes intact (in a 60% out of a 100 way) and you can infer the rest and the voices are superb choices. Cosmetically, you couldn't ask for a better dub, if only halfway first season (when all that picked up) on. So I thank 4Kids for giving this and proving firsthand the main strength of a dub--to show audiences a project they normally couldn't have access to as well as enlighten in their own way (the movie demonstrated the dubbers' penchant for rather decent banter).

    As for the episode itself: the episode comparison isn't ready but dub-wise, had some nice effects: music was from Season One and good battling. The dub no doubt downplayed the emotional impact but for what it's worth, it still retained plenty (I say this at the big goodbye scene). Joey had his rather deep moment with another lovely Joey/Tea interaction to boot. I think Tea should have said her love for Atem as she was clearly holding back but, oh well. I don't care for the ship, so I'm not losing sleep but still.

    In the end, the final moment had some quirky banter. Not quite what the producers had in mind but nice nonetheless. With that, Atem went back to the underworld, the Big Bads are redeemed or dead, and the gang is freed from the confines of the series/dynamic/obligations and have the freedom to do whatever. Just as Joey said: just that Atem was here in our memories and that will always be a constant (I'm paraphrasing of course). Now it's time to move on. My only complaint is the animation itself. It was typical static Japanimation but not as bad as the normal fare (the flashback episode and Serenity's departing episode was the worst animation I've had the misfortune of seeing). It's the final episode, come on TV Tokyo, you could have dimed out for the good animation team (like the one for their climaxes or at least a decisive one in the multi-parters). Bah. Imbeciles. Beyond that, I enjoyed it. I think the episode had video static but unobservable. I hope Cartoon Network will treat the repeats with respect but I highly doubt it after the crap they've pulled in the past.

    That said, thank you for the drama, Yu-Gi-Oh! I don't know where I'll find similar ones, either way the ride was great while it lasted, but now it's over.
     
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    Wow, I actually spent the time to read all that... o__o surprsing since I'm tired as all get out....
    Anyhoo, nice peice of writting.
    I agree with you on almost aspect, and at at least I wasn't the only one bugged by the animation in certain episodes... ^^;
    I've been with Yugioh since 2001 as well.
    The first episode that I bothered watching was towards the end of the Duelist Kindgom when Atem was facing Seto outside of Pegasus's castle, and Seto threatend to let himself fall off the edge... >>
    I dunno why, but I was hooked on it after that... I loved the ending of that season, and the Arc, and Battle City.
    I also really liked the last episodes when there were in Egypt.
    While I'm not as into Yugioh as I once was at all, (stopped about 2004) I still stuck with it 'til the end, and I'm happy that 4Kids didn't mess with the final episode too much.
    While I do watch Yugioh GX, it does tend to annoy me alot of the time, and its nothing in comparison to the original Yugioh, I still like it alright.
     
    Thank you, I didn't know I had it in me. Heh.

    I, too, enjoyed the rampant three parter and that proved to me what a soaking drama it was. I didn't care for Battle City at first but it was interesting later on with Joey's role in the mix (Although the Virtual arc would be my favorite arc of all) and Doma was basically their version of anime Sailor Moon SuperS. God, that was weird.

    From what I've seen of the episode comparison of the finale, they didn't alter too much, although omitting that epilogue in which we see what happens to everyone is rather jarring but not surprising given how Kids WB is so anal retentive of their scheduling. Oh well.

    I kinda find it odd that I want to write Yu-Gi-Oh fanfiction now instead of when the series was going on. I never had the time for it. At least the finale gave me a sense of appreciation as I'm playing around with the ship of Joey/Ishizu and some solace, since I don't care for the GX ships much. Of course I don't care for GX either but I do want to try to get into it and since CN is cutting back, I'm getting rather annoyed.

    It's the same old adage: "never know what you're missing until it's gone."
     
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