Although it spawned one of the most popular card games on the planet, the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga didn’t originally focus on its iconic Duel Monsters game. This focus only came to be once fans fixated on Duel Monsters, and those who look back to the start of the manga to see how it all began may be shocked to see just how long it is before a card even shows up.

Today, Yu-Gi-Oh! is synonymous with its collectible card game, for which dozens of different card sets have been released. It caught on big in America twenty years ago, when the anime adaptation was first broadcast on the WB in September of 2001. By that time, the card game that the series is known for had been made real and was being sold, and a localized version made its way outside of Japan shortly thereafter. While the card game used in the series is referred to as Duel Monsters (or Magic & Wizards in the manga), its real life counterpart is generally just referred to as Yu-Gi-Oh!, as if it is the only game associated with the series, even though that isn’t the case.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! began running in Shonen Jump back in 1996, written by Kazuki Takahashi. A big fan of games of all types, Takahashi decided to make a manga that centered on “combat” without physical contact, and found games a perfect way to do just that. In its earliest chapters, Yu-Gi-Oh! deals with a variety of different games: dice, chess, role-playing games, and finally in chapter 9 (alongside Seto Kaiba), cards. The title translates to “King of Games,” an appropriate name for the concept, as Yugi’s alter ego was supposed to be excellent at a wide variety of games. The concept of the Millennium Puzzle was present from the beginning, although the exact nature of the dark personality known as Yami Yugi wasn’t clear. Even once it appeared, the card game was only meant to be a one-off; it wasn’t until a deluge of fan mail for Shonen Jump mentioned the cards in particular that the focus changed to what the franchise is now known for.

The real differences in the early manga (often called “Season 0” by fans) are mostly centered around the tone of the story. In the thirty-sixth volume of the manga, Takahashi admits that he had originally been thinking about creating a horror manga, and looking back at its origins, it really shows. Yami Yugi at first seems to be more of a reflection of the darkness inside the timid Yugi’s heart rather than a completely separate spirit, and is shown to be a gambler who prefers the highest of stakes. Early games are often improvised, bar-trick-style games rather than well known, clearly defined competitions of skill. Most of the early games are also against bullies, sleazy movie directors, and other unsavory types who, upon losing, often die outright or suffer a fate that’s far worse. While some of that lives on in the manga’s later direction, like the Shadow Realm, in these early chapters it’s Yami Yugi who puts forth these wagers, rather than the villains he faces. Yugi was designed as the unbeatable hero meting out karmic justice.

While Yu-Gi-Oh!‘s days of playing games other than Duel Monsters have likely passed, it’s always interesting to take a look back at the original intention of a massive franchise like this, and wonder how differently things might have played out had it stuck closer to the original vision.

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Carlyle Edmundson
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Carlyle Edmundson is a news and features writer with an affinity for science fiction and fantasy. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a BS in Film Studies and is glad that it’s relevant to his work. A lifelong fan of anime and manga, he has attended dozens of conventions over the years and may or may not have cosplayed at them. He is also the author of the Dystopian Detective series, available from most places ebooks are sold.

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