Yu-Gi-Oh "Season Zero"

[Aqua Dream]

To clarify things, this is NOT something translated by 4kids. I am refering to the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime that 4kids considered to be too violent/ scary for young children.

Anyways, has anyone else seen this excellent anime? Personally, I'm not a big fan of the later series, known as Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters (This is the series that 4kids translated) in Japan because it's so very different from the original. Thought the two series are connected, and the original series is often refered to as "Season Zero", they have quite a few differences. For example, Miho (who only appeared a few times in the later series under the name "Melody" in the American version) is a major character, and it is never explained why she hardly appears after that. Also, Seto Kaiba's hair is green and Dark Magician has blue armor.

This series is much better than the one that followed it (and gave it a bad name to many). I highly recommend this series, even to those who do not like Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters. It is much more of a drama than an action show, and only features that card game a few times, and even then the characters do not obsess over it.

 

[miyo]

Interesting! I haven't seen the series yet, I"ve only seen the Duel MOnster series.. wow.. it sounds cool xD

 

[Ryoutarou]

I thought this was a horrible show. TOEI really screwed up the animation budget on the first series, spending little more than half of the animation budget to hire "big name" voice actors. The animation just blew, especially for something from TOEI, but it happens when you have fame whores doing the production. The stories were decent at best, most of the time it was just badly adapted manga plot. The original stuff was just plain bad, I honestly don't see why people make Shadow Games out to be the best of the three series. Duel Monsters is so much better, better music, better plot, better animation, though it's hard to do any sort of animation that would be worse than the first series.

Shadow Games was too episodic for its own good. There was no season-long plot, the characters had bad development and aside from the Kaiba Land and Bakura arcs, there was nothing in terms of series enemies. It just bad for a really boring show in my opinion.

For example, Miho (who only appeared a few times in the later series under the name "Melody" in the American version) is a major character, and it is never explained why she hardly appears after that.

Because in the manga she was just a bit character. There was no purpose for her after a few chapters, for whatever reason they decided to make her into a main character in Shadow Games. Two different studios did each series and the ones that did Duel Monsters sticked closer to the manga, thus they didn't give character who only showed up every now and then huge unneeded parts.

And I hate the "season zero" name everyone gives it. The title card has the proper name "Yuugiou: Shadow Games", yet people still call it by a really bad fan name.

 

[Aqua Dream]

I've read the manga, and I'm well aware that Miho was a minor character in it. Her personality was also very different. My issue is that she mysteriouslly vanishes when the Shadow Games series ends. Because it's based on the manga, Duel Monsters references events that took place in the Shadow Games series, and occasionally uses bits from it in flashbacks. The lesast they could have done was give some canonical reason for Miho leaving the group.

And you're certainly entitled to your opinion. Shadow Games and Duel Monsters are very different from each other. I'm not the least bit surprised that there are plenty of people who like one and dislike the other, myself included. My issue with Duel Monsters was that it focused almost entirely on the action, leaving other aspects underdeveloped or not present. As I said before, Shadow Games is more of a drama, and was probably intended for a different audience.

 

[Cherrim]

Well, see, she wasn't supposed to be a part of the group in the first place. o_O; Before the plot from DM starts in the manga, she appears in it...what...two or three times? She was barely in the manga so there was no reason for the first season to make her into a main character. :\

Anyway, I've only seen a few episodes of the first season...I think the first three episodes and that movie thing. o_o I wasn't too impressed. Like Jorfe said, the animation just hurt and the plot didn't intrigue me in the least like Duel Monsters did, so I never bothered to seek out the rest of it. o_O;

Also, I'm pretty sure part of the reason 4kids never translated it is probably because of the animation. I mean, Duel Monsters' animation was clean and crisp, making it nice to look at and that's honestly one of the reasons I started watching the dub when it came on TV. XD; But had I seen the low quality of that first season as my introduction to Yuugiou instead of DM? I probably would have changed the channel right away. @_@;;

 

[Aqua Dream]

I don't consider animation quality to be that important, but I'm aware that I'm one of few people who thinks that way. I just think of it as rather strange for a card game to be that important, and there really isn't a reason to use hologram projecters except to show off the action. Duel Monsters may have better animation, but I like the plot of Shadow Games more. I don't mind not having constant villains because the show seems to be mostly about the relationship between Yugi and Yami.

 

[miyo]

If the animation for season one was lousier than DM, I wouldn't have watched it too.. DM's animation was qutie alright, but I still have my displeasures about it.. (I wonder if I'm just being too particular).. so if SG were of a lousier animation quality, I really wouldn't watch it..
Bad animation would be hurting to the eyes imo.. =/

 

[Aqua Dream]

I wouldn't say that Shadow Games' animation is "bad," though I do admit that Duel Monsters' was better. It's not a strain on the eyes, that's for sure, and I have seen much worse. It's definately worth checking out, though if the thing you appreciated most about Duel Monsters was the action, you might not like it. They do play Duel Monsters a few times in SG, but it's different.

 

[Charaxes]

I loved the intro, but yes, it wasn't top notch, which is funny as it was the most manga accurate series (Shadi's and Yami Yugi's dark side, Kaiba's villainy and of course, Miho). Of course, the Duel Monsters anime couldn't pass up a reference when they did the Virtual Realm arc and paraded Noa with his green hair (just as Seto in the first series also had cropped green hair). And it certainly tightened the similarity of Noa/Seto as at that point, Seto really addressed a younger version of himself or the one from the beginning of the DM series.

I wish people knew more about it and the best you could find it, is on bootlegs. Pity.

I just call it "First series" myself.

 

[Ryoutarou]

I wish people knew more about it and the best you could find it, is on bootlegs. Pity.

Accurate fansubs are pretty easy to find.

It's definately worth checking out, though if the thing you appreciated most about Duel Monsters was the action, you might not like it.

It's not that, the second series had its share of pretty good story as well. It's that the first series did a horrible job of adapting the manga, no real ending, giving Miho a role that lasted more than two episodes. I thought the animation was bad, very bad. The only thing I liked about it was the acting, guess that's what TOEI was going for though.