Anime Meta-Review
Yu Gi Oh
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Title Info
- seen: 1-4
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
Note that I don't think this is the same show that screened on American TV, but an earlier source. The version that screened is far more modern in its production values, has a bigger budget, and uses the dual monsters game as a centerpiece. In this one the games are much more free-form, and sillier.
The central concept of this anime is fairly interesting, albeit still developing at this point. It seems that in ancient egypt they would test the measure of a person through magical `games of darkness'. These competitions would determine the `winner' of a trial as well as give some insight into the character of the player. Hold that thought and fast forward to a modern japanese high school. Consider the existence of a cute girl, a bossy girl, a cynical guy and a honorable to extremes guy then add one more guy who looks like he stepped out of a video game. One of these people might end up solving a puzzle, being a lonely puzzle freak, that re-awakens the magic of the `games of darkness', and brings it into the modern age. Thus the stage is set for visually impressive competitions against villains or obsessive's who awaken this dormant power in one of the cast through their cruel actions.
The concept is fairly novel, but the production is a limiting factor. The animation itself is fairly crude, with lots of blocky shapes to simplify the production, to the extent that many characters don't look particularly human. Simple coloring, basic backgrounds and abstracted action make it very obvious that the budget is not immense. In addition the writing, both story and dialog is not without flaws, and some of the `games' are much better than others. So far the stories have been episodic, and the fact that the character does not know about his latent power limits the effect it has on the cast. Still, I watch with interest to see if the story can make up for the deficits in the production.
None of the sites I source has a review for this title. A comment on usenet suggested there is a card-game (a bad card game) to go with this anime, which makes things somewhat clearer.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:27 WST 2009