The Wacky Worldbuilding of Early Yu-Gi-Oh!

A look at how the surprise success of Duel Monsters transformed Yu-Gi-Oh! - the supernatural shounen horror manga - into the bizarre, cyberpunk-fantasy-action marketing machine we know today. And all the weird things that happened to the series' world along the way.
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In the depths of his Mother's Basement, Geoff Thew creates videos analyzing the storytelling techniques of anime and video games. He has been named the number one Worst KZbin Anime Reviewer by The Top Tens.

[@jacobbrown2938]

Yugioh, where one character is so spiteful and driven that he almost single handily advances human technology hundreds of years for a card game.

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

Seto Kaiba is basicly Elon Musk with a grudge.

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

Yu gi oh, where the character who influences most of the plots of series where he isn't even a main character, is such a petty bitch he not only names the lowest duelist rank in his school after his rivals god card, but literally recreates him virtually just to have the satisfaction of defeating him, all while pretty much making the world revolve around card games and spending and making money at such a terrifying rate that the monopoly man would have a stroke.

[@TheRezignator]

Remember that time he sent hand drawn cards from children into space for... reasons?

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

@@TheRezignator his reasoning was if there was intelligent life, they would be capable of dueling. this leads to the fucking alien arc in gx.

[@harrisonlichtenberg3162]

@@10tailedbijuu Just give Elon Musk a few more years.

[@juanmarailgun7783]

"they were still using VHS tapes when Kaiba invented holograms" That line absolutely killed me.

[@GroundThing]

My headcanon is that Kaiba's holograms wouldn't stock porn, which kept VHS from going the way of Beta, and forced holograms to be relegated to children's card games, which was probably an objectively better move, for him, given the logic of the show. (and, yes, I know the beta thing is an urban legend /in our world/ but Yugioh is far from our world)

[@Crash_2099]

U have the dark magician girl, that’s something like porn.

[@Psychesrose]

To be fair, we do have the technology to create holograms, it's just we don't have an insane quadrillionaire willing to spend that much money to make his card game obsession commercially viable.

[@richardhicks5031]

@@Psychesrose but vr/ar devices are commercially viable

[@MrNightmaresinner]

He glossed over that space elevator is also a fucking time machine

[@akba666]

People say war drives technology forward, but nah, war is nothing compared to one man's need for his salty runback.

[@mothersbasement]

It goes Card Game Grudges Porn Then war

[@moonmannd7501]

Kaiba is what you'd get if Scrubtweets had a stand

[@alicesmith255]

@@mothersbasement Where does "Petty Spite" fit in in that scale?

[@feritperliare2890]

@@alicesmith255 all of them

[@Shiirow]

war didnt change, it just evolved... its time to d-d-d-d-duel

[@miguelmello129]

Can we take a moment to appreciate how customer friendly Kaiba's products are though? In the finale of GX Jaden dueled Yugi, who was wielding a duel disk that was roughly 10 years behind his own model and they were still compatible

[@weberman173]

i mean.... they have to by default. the Dueldisk Jaden uses is only available at duel academys (kaiba build several academys acording to the wiki. holy moly) and only wielded by current studends or alumni. So they arent as much as "new dueldisks" as just upgraded shells for them. and given that its heavily implied that the duel disks operate mostly via the Satelite network, they only have to communicate with that(and given the orichalcos disk which was 100% NOT an officaly licensed Duel Disk, works flawlessly in the system its not suprising)

[@midgetydeath]

He's the sort of person who thinks of everything and prepares for everything. Except hax magic powers.

[@austinnorton7518]

My headcanon is that duel disks are just fancy hologram projectors with an uplink to the KaibaCorp satellites/mainframe, and all the data is stored via RFID or NFC inside the individual cards. The card is placed on the duel disk, which reads the data of the card, then sends that data to the mainframe to process, then the mainframe sends the results of interactions to the player's duel disks. Bonds Beyond Time shows that cards that shouldn't exist yet (Synchros) are compatible with Yugi and Jaden's disks, so the data has to be coming from somewhere else (like the cards themselves) Making the cards have a chip also explains why the cards are so... tough? Like, sure, they can be ripped, but they've been submerged in water countless times during the show and never shown to be worse for wear. Rafael's Guardian cards were the only cards ever shown with real wear and tear, and that was after a decade of them being exposed to the elements. I'm thinking they're some sort of layered foil? Aluminum or something similar? Maybe something magnetic so they stick to the disks. I dunno. I'm rambling. But it's fun to think about.

[@Banchoking]

No no, it goes further. Yusei uses a modified version of that same outdated disk. It's still compatible!

[@tymonster183]

@@austinnorton7518 yeah, but apple once practically bricked an entire line of phones when one of their updates "accidentally" permanently shut off wifi and bluetooth for anyone who wasnt using them at the time of the update, so give Kaiba corp some credit.

[@danielzogbi5207]

This video doesn't even mention the time in GX where Kaiba fired trading cards into space that were designed by children so they could be bombarded by space rays and gain superpowers. The more you follow this series the more you realize that it's also the story where a supervillain successfully reshapes the world in his image, died beloved, successful, unrepentant, and accomplished all his goals, except for the only one that really mattered: beating someone in a card game. What I'm saying is that Kaiba's the best.

[@Ilvocare]

His original intention for launching those cards into space was to make alien contact and subsequently dominate entire civilizations via the card game, he had no idea about the Light of Destruction. Through this he actually one-ups his dad in intent; whereas Gozaburo (who should honestly have a whole video showing how much he qualifies as """"best dad"""") dominated the world through violence and arms races, Kaiba opted to conquer the known galaxy and potentially universe entirely through nonviolent means.

[@enlongjones2394]

“Who lets kids design cards? Last time they did that, PEOPLE DIED...”

[@elijahpadilla5083]

@@enlongjones2394 Reference spotted and appreciated, even if it's misquoted. "Lets children make cards? Last time that happened, *people died* . . ."

[@samueljackson3512]

@@elijahpadilla5083 What is that a reference to? Rank10Yugioh?

[@MogFlintlock]

@@samueljackson3512 Yes.

[@demilung]

Takahashi: All I wanted was a horror story about a murderous spirit, but they keep bringing trucks full of money!

[@christiancrusader9374]

Well, it's not like the spirit being a pharaoh, or being a good guy deep down, weren't there. Atem only went after people who had it coming, and clearly cared about the gang. And at least in season 0, Shadi showed up pretty early, and made a few hints. Like when he commented Atem's soul room looked like a Pharaoh's tomb. Or when he cried for the dead pharaoh at the museum. In the end, the only thing that changed majorly was that he got some character development. The manga still had some terrifying stuff. Like when Pegasus turned Keith's hand into a gun and forced him to kill himself.

[@arbiterskiss6692]

I hate it when that happens to me too.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

Task failed successfully.

[@lordtoademort8124]

@@christiancrusader9374 EXCUSE ME WHAT

[@SpiritualFox]

@@lordtoademort8124 He's applying Christian Apologetics to Aten of Akhenaten and saying the spirit did nothing wrong because those were baddies. He explains that since the spirit expresses sadness at death, he's not a psychopath. -Horakthy, manifest trinity of the God cards

[@Lokolopes7]

Kaiba built a machine capable of taking him straight to the afterlife so he could settle his grudge over a 5 millennia old dead guy on a children’s card game. An absolute madlad.

[@chrishubbard64]

Makes you expect that there will be a sequel where he creates another device to send his soul forward to its next incarnation knowing he will get the chance to meet and duel the pharaoh again. "Screw this, I won forever already so im done with this life. Time to start over, find my rival, AND KICK THINGS OFF AGAIN!" Yugioh 2525: Our young protagonist has to figure out why this arrogant angry rich boy keeps challenging him to various contests, beating him, getting depressed about it, then demanding he get better because "I know you are better than this" One day a near fatal incident occurs, awakening his past life memories. His first words upon waking back up? "Really kaiba? REALLY?! Were you THAT desperate to fight me again?"

[@scribble71891]

Yeah forget his parents Atem's more important. XD

[@thehorseformerlywithoutana2522]

Madlad? THIS. IS. KAIBA.

[@PhoeFlame]

Actually this machine took him into the puzzle, not in the afterlife. But doesnt matter.

[@ASSARAPTUS]

@@PhoeFlame Kaiba didn't keep the puzzle. Atem took it with him back to the afterlife, Kaiba used the Quantum Cube (a retconned 8th millennium item known for dimension crossing) to get into the afterlife.

[@acehealer4212]

I can't believe Seto Kaiba took over the entire global economy just because he had a hate-boner for a dead king.

[@darkcat6530]

Now thats called dedication

[@acehealer4212]

@@darkcat6530 These things are not mutually exclusive

[@darkcat6530]

@@acehealer4212 I wanted to type now but auto correct corrected it To no

[@acehealer4212]

@@darkcat6530 Ah, whoops.

[@darkcat6530]

@@acehealer4212 u did nothing wrong u just pointed out a mistake i made

[@JackgarPrime]

The only industries more profitable than children's card games in the YGO universe: Hair gel and clothing starch.

[@Mochachocakon]

Don't forget the belts and bandages

[@ugoeze7360]

But the outdoor clothing industry took a major hit due to the reusability of jackets, sweaters, and vests

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The developer of the anti-gravity coat mist be the 2nd richest person on the planet.

[@cvhashim]

Lol

[@thrasher698]

@@HappyBeezerStudios Pretty sure that was designed by Kaiba himself

[@Getwright-]

The American dub yugioh: believe in the power of friendship! Original Yugioh: "that kid looked at you weird, lets go play saw blade disk golf with him"

[@dvklaveren]

This made me laugh out loud, thanx!

[@certainlysunny7851]

Guy in the next room: where are all those screams coming from?

[@Charok1]

I want a show based on the manga now!

[@AzraelThanatos]

The Pre-Card Game YuGiOh was like that, after the transition, they weren't that different save the US one was quite a bite tamer in other ways due to censorship

[@pantherace1000]

i laughed so hard at this i cried.

[@0Enigmatic0]

The looting of Domino City has gone on for too long. The top 1% of duelists have all the Egyptian god cards, and the working duelists do not even have health care for when they're mind broken in a shadow game.

[@Kiseochan]

"I'm sorry your insurance doesn't cover shadow game mind damage."

[@Deoxys911]

It's up to us to work together and use the power of our Millennial Items to save our society!

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

UwU...What if we held hands, and rode motorcycles while having strong themes of class conflict? Haha! Just kidding...unless?

[@rokkfel4999]

Is it bad I want this as a show

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

@@rokkfel4999 No, that’s just praxis.

[@Kuperman1291]

There's a particular scene that always stuck with me and is when Kaiba is about to get mugged and he challenges the robber to a card duel, the man just goes with it, loses and then disappears off the face of the earth.

[@jacobburr3570]

And that exactly why I. Always. Carrrryyyy!! All five pieces of exodia, the unstoppable god, exodia.. OBLITERATTTTTTE

[@matthew_natividad]

Didn’t yugi do the same thing with a school bully but with a card draw?

[@rogerogue7226]

Wait, which episode was that? Start of battle city?

[@VijoPlays]

I only remember the one where he first summoned Obelisk. A guy mugged another duelist (or didnt want to give his card up, after losing? Something like that), and Kaiba offered him his case of super strong cards if he could beat Kaiba

[@klassicjammer7322]

My favorite is when one of Pegasus’s henchmen put Kaiba at gunpoint and Kaiba throws a card somehow (I think behind his back but either way incredible) that lands between the hammer and the bullet of the pistol to stop it from firing and then beats him up because he’s also stronger and more skilled than a private security guard.

[@justinduffany5580]

Kaiba probably could’ve solved world hunger or poverty, ended up with a Nobel Peace Prize, but no, he just focuses on his Dragon fetish.

[@tanukifruit7059]

Are you saying you wouldn't finance a dragon-shaped jet for strictly flexing on others?

[@MrDylancurry]

True. At least Bruce Wayne uses his riches and fetishes to beat up crazy people.

[@rizalplayingtheflute3825]

Hans Hanzo its funny that, a full century and a half later, they invent real solid vision that COULD harm duelists a lot of characters come from war zones and experience police brutality at the hands of monsters that could actually kill you

[@MaJuV]

Though you have to admit that's pretty realistic when compared to most billionaires IRL. Haven't seen a single one solve world hunger or poverty. But building a private spaceship company? Suuuuure! It's like Elon Musk took a look at Seto Kaiba and said: "Sure, I can be like that."

[@lukaz1034]

Screw the rules, he has money!

[@scottbecker4367]

Kaiba didn't just change an entire city's way of doing things, or even the entire world for that matter. He literally changed how villains try to conquer the world. He's so influential that villains are still playing his game.

[@RockHeiland]

Kai a did not invent duel monsters, just the holo technology

[@scottbecker4367]

@@RockHeiland yes, but the holograms turned the game into a spectator sport on a grand scale.

[@seekingabsolution1907]

If only Dio brando had realized he didn't need his heaven ritual to become the center of the world, he simply needed holograms and card games.

[@rishabhanand4973]

technically it's pegasus' game. kaiba's just the one who brought it to life

[@leotamer5]

It is ancient soul magic, refined by Ancient Egyptians, rediscovered by Pegasus, and then hyper-commercialized by Kaiba.

[@benpelczynski6964]

I can’t believe you didn’t mention the most bananas part of Yu-Gi-Oh! worldbuilding, the fact that (at least according to the Virtual World arc in the anime) there was an on-Broadway musical about Dark Magician Girl. It won a Tony for Best Musical.

[@DT-yw4ob]

My headcanon is that the actual DMG spirit got the lead role

[@IONATVS]

DarkLightPrince Most of them had a “change of heart” after a long talk with KaibaCorp’s Media Relations division. And the rest had tragic accidents.

[@goodpeople25]

IONATVS Was it similar to what happened to Brad from accounting?

[@harker-san6903]

goodpeople25 We do not speak of Brad from accounting. You should know that, maybe not for long.

[@ForrestFox626]

That makes perfect sense to me.

[@harryperezperez5036]

Why is no one talking about how kaiba admitted that Atem has perfect hair and that it took longer to finish because of his hair.

[@thegooddoctor2009]

I seriously thought that was from Yugioh Abridged...

[@cashnelson2306]

there are many comments about that line

[@TorrentialStardust]

Kaiba’s a little obsessed with this guy... he should get a hobby. Preferably one that doesn’t involve conquering the world

[@silentspirit8923]

"That perfectly coiffed hair..." Yes he actually said this.

[@slavishentity6705]

Making fun of Yugi's hair is a reoccurring joke in the manga, except Kaiba does everything HIS way so he praises him for that haircut instead

[@turjoyghose2670]

Kaiba is so rich he could spend the money to end world hunger. Instead he spends his fortune to build a machine that can transcend space, time and death to play a children's card game with a dead spirit.

[@lukerabon7925]

The card game version of "I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs."

[@peheoli6353]

And it feels so much like something billionaires would do i cant even say "Nah, never gonna happen"

[@turjoyghose2670]

Seto Kaiba: "screw the rules of physics, I have money!"

[@wulfherecyning1282]

In fairness, almost all people own multiple video game consoles, a phone or two, a computer etc. 60 bucks for a new game could feed two homeless people for a week. Nobody gives 60 bucks per month to charity. Billionaires actually give a lot more to charity, albeit as tax writeoffs.

[@lunabby8455]

Wulfhere Cyning Nah I think to compare billionaires who make there money off of exploitation to regular folks who feel the burden of that expectation is wrong. Most families can’t even eat some nights compared to billionaires who spend a cent of wealth,write it off as tax break for the regular folks to pay for there tax break while they contribute nothing to communities they inhabit,destroy, and exploit. capitalism really do be making me sad doe😔

[@Dac85]

In GX a naval convoy was used to deliver booster packs to the school.

[@nexus5253]

Well yah, that’s precious cargo they’ve got right there.

[@mdhpclan]

and I loved every second of it

[@firepuppies4086]

Being fair, it is a school run by Kaiba. He takes that VERY seriously

[@Mcree114]

Don't want your vital booster packs getting sunk by U-boats do you?

[@sithblaze]

In GX bastion nearly married a tiger.

[@draphking]

I don’t people truly grasp what happens at the end ofDark Side Of Dimensions. Kaiba literally flies a rocket to Egyptian heaven so he can play a guy in a card game.

[@AndreNitroX]

No it’s a time machine

[@flyingstapler1241]

@@AndreNitroX it's a dimension hopping device

[@KingSpectre844]

@@flyingstapler1241 Hence the name of the film.

[@Speculector]

@andre i thought it was a time machine too but after researching it i found out he travelled to another dimension because the machine he used harnesses the power of the millenium cube and that's what that does.

[@krullachief669]

@@Speculector What it does exactly doesn't even matter for how silly and glorious it is tbh.

[@-AirKat-]

You forgot the most important part of Yusei solving wealth inequality forever with a bridge: he did so by playing a card game really good

[@shadowclaw7210]

On motorcycles.

[@luissaumeth8000]

On a motorcycle, IN SPACE AND DESTROY A STAR IN THE PROCESS

[@radboyrandom1976]

Yugioh 5ds, an anime where the main character fixes inequality and unites the world by building a bridge through playing a card game... ON MOTORCYCLES!!!

[@TheAntagonistHero]

"I went through a great deal of trouble recreating the pharaoh's deck, strategies, even his perfectly quaffed hair. In fact that part is what took the longest." Inventing holograms and sapient AI? Piece of cake. Figuring out how the hell Yugi's hair works? Uuuuuuuhhhhhh???

[@timothymarks1041]

Well, hey, particle physics are no joke.

[@guytheincognito4186]

@@timothymarks1041 Neither is that boys hair 🤣

[@KnakuanaRka]

I’m pretty sure that was a LittleKuriboh Abridged line.

[@jessicav931]

@@KnakuanaRka oh! That made sense, I was wondering if the English version made this kind of jokes or what

[@jerekheadrick3379]

@@KnakuanaRka Nope, that line was straight up in the movie. I couldn't believe it either.

[@Nanofuture87]

"Billionaires are parasites" You're just jealous that you don't have a jet shaped like a blue eyes white dragon.

[@emperorpicard7222]

That dragon jet should be in it's natural environment, not some billionaire's hanger with his fleet of myriad other aircraft!

[@FederationThunderbolt]

is it Strange that, when you think about it, Kaiba could literally have so much more money if he had: 1: Created a Duel Monsters AI APP for the High Tech Phones he would Create (because duh XD) 2: have certain Vehicles look like Duel Monsters like he did for the Blue Eyes White Dragon Jet of his 3: literally have an Entire Island be Duel Monster Themed where you could Duel ANYWHERE on the Island and the only cost is you have to have a Deck of Cards you can duel with, buy cards from Stores to maximize your Decks Strength... i mean jees, those 3 things along, imagen how much money he could get from those instead of just from people getting his High Tech Disks and Such

[@ahkilleuskosmos6836]

@@FederationThunderbolt Funnily enough we've seen people IRL with so much money they start doing weird shit, like the CEO of Amazon spending his money to create rockets shaped like actual dicks, so maybe Kaiba's not so absurd after all.

[@khazarhay]

i have a blue eyes white dragon jet your argument is invalid

[@alonsoarana5307]

Nah, billionaires are parasites to the planet and Kaiba ironically is a bigger threat than Pegasus and Marik. Only reason he's not on par with Bakura or Dartz is because they are literal eco fascists or want to destroy existence but Kaiba is pretty evil

[@Vilfer]

Dark Side of Dimension is incredible. Upon finally accepting that the pharaoh is dead, Kaiba retro-engineers ancient Egyptian magic to travel to the underworld to have his last duel. You just can't make that shit up.

[@Zehruk]

Clearly you can if you have enough money and are Seto Fucking Kaiba.

[@HeirofAzaran]

@@Zehruk "Screw the afterlife I have money."

[@MrDylancurry]

Really is the perfect end for his character. That and the fact that they will NEVER reveal who wins that final duel, gives it that perfect "Rocky III" ending.

[@Beriorn]

My dude hacks his way into the afterlife through the sheer power of his salt alone.

[@zerakielvmark]

That dude fucking sciences magic to play a cardgame with a ghost.

[@reederickson3202]

To be fair, if all the world's conflicts could be solved with a children's card game rather than violence, I might be willing to accept Seto Kaiba as our mega-capitalist lord and savior.

[@matthew_natividad]

I’d be more inclined to participate in presidential elections more often if that were the case

[@guacamole6934]

@@matthew_natividad “Donald Trump you may have won the election but nobody will accept you as the president until you can defeat Hilary Clinton in a duel!”

[@matthew_natividad]

@@guacamole6934 ok now I’m intrigued

[@luissaumeth8000]

Same tbh, if is able to make every single war a YuGiOh duel, I would probably say he is the best president of the world

[@Heart-S-pade]

In some level I'd still be weary since shadow games are a thing, but given that Kaiba doesn't do that, I wonder what's the worse that could happen if this is how wars are resolved?

[@skyrogue1977]

I want to see a Yugioh season where the main character doesn’t care at all about duel monsters. He just wants to be an electrician or something, but gets dragged into the nonsense that is Yugioh.

[@owenwilliams7475]

And he’s like ridiculously good and beats everyone without even trying, kinda like OPM and Mob Psycho 100

[@mistbornlazarus2611]

@ULGROTHA You mean Vrains? Is that how it goes? xD

[@chat124]

ya that sorta is vrains, OP protag who never loses gets forced into the game, unlike every other protag yusaku doesnt really ever show any actual enjoyment in the game, he's kinda just a traumatized coder who got roped into yugioh cuz he happened to tell the wrong kid he liked duel monsters as a child, then boom 3 seasons of trauma, saving the world, watching people die, and pretty much fighting for his life every episode

[@theinherit116]

That sounds like my life.

[@Zehruk]

That sounds like the YuGiOh abridged version of the first japanese movie. You should look it up if that's not what you were referencing.

[@OmegaRockman]

In the Japanese Dark Side of Dimensions Kaiba literally owns Domino City and requires everyone to have a Duel Monsters Deck and to register it in a database

[@frankwest5388]

So he literally had their deck data? My strategy is private information and no one should have insight into it. Over my boss monsters body in the GY

[@BestAnimeFreak]

@@frankwest5388 Well, the insides of your deck get revealed anyway, the moment you play a game. So Kaiba would know what is in it anyway at some point. It just safes him time °L°

[@jeffpage1000]

So, this leave me wonder: does Yu-Gi-Oh universe has politicians? Or everything runs around a card game and one rich, sore-loser, kid?

[@NexusVFD]

>Has Yugi's deck data >Sets up simulations >Still can't beat the guy in an irl duel

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

@@NexusVFD Cuz Yugi cheats

[@certainlysunny7851]

"when I say analogue games, I really mean murder with extra steps." I died.

[@slein1055]

Did you play analogue games?

[@jasonkeith2832]

@@slein1055 Geez. Have some respect for the recently deceased. It was probably a board game.

[@04whim]

That really was a lot of extra steps.

[@maryse4me]

The good news is: if Yugi ever really does create his own game, there’s now way it will die in obscurity...Kaiba will never let that happen. That man will support it in every way possible, for the simple fact that he would have the shot to say that he beat the king of games at his own game 🙃🙃

[@mastergalladetech]

Kaiba is the best boyfriend and I will die on this hill

[@koboldparty4708]

@@mastergalladetech I...cannot argue against that.

[@Alice-May]

Oh god, Atem is Kaiba's kismesis!

[@matheusm.santana6527]

​@@Alice-May goddammit. You can't ever escape homestuck.

[@Alice-May]

@@matheusm.santana6527 You do not know the true extent of that till you see your favorite author used to write Homestuck fan fics and know the semi-canonical classpect of the protagonist of a series

[@PistolB97]

Admit it, you've always wanted to go to a dueling school lol.

[@hallofguns8174]

I admit it.

[@Da_Swifta]

who hasn't? I'd love to chill out with the crew in the schoolyard, finding trouble, never looking too hard!

[@mustafamrouweh7873]

There is nothing I want more

[@oddity7653]

I admit it and I am proud to say it!

[@TheRealTact]

@@Da_Swifta 😂😂😂😂 lmfao

[@Leopoldshark]

New Yugioh: solve problems with children's card games Old Yugioh: solve problems with Money and Knife

[@ayt3877]

"Because fuck you, who is going to stop him" is a well rounded way of describing Kaiba that made me burst a lung

[@dumpsockpuppet5619]

Alternatively you can use the classic *"SCREW THE RULES! I HAVE MONEY"*

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

@@dumpsockpuppet5619 There is no line that can better define him as a character

[@ugoeze7360]

@@dumpsockpuppet5619 Seto “I Got Fuck You Money” Kaiba.

[@DerangedDurain]

Something else that is both hilarious and terrifying in 5Ds: the cops play Duel Monsters to catch lawbreakers. In fact, the rules of Duel Monsters are so immutable to the law and order of Neo Domino city that the bikes called Duel Runners are able to remotely hacked by the police to force a duel, and losing that duel shuts down your bike. The rules of Duel Monsters sit above the police in terms of hierarchy, since if they could hack Duel Runners to force a duel, they could probably just shut down your bike remotely. I like to imagine Kaiba is sitting on his capitalist throne saying "If a criminal can beat you in a duel, then what authority do you have to catch them", and just forces the police to adapt to his survival-of-the-duelist world that he made.

[@ianjack6124]

Well actually the whole reason dueling is relevant in 5ds is because of synchro summoning is the reason the city gets power lol.

[@_Vengeance_]

A part that stands out to me is that factory Placido used to build the Diablo army. The factory can be locked down to trap intruders. The doors are protected by a guard robot, beating it unlocks the doors. Only... how about NOT having the guard robot so the doors can't be unlocked? It's more like an unguard robot than a guard robot.

[@e3Gewinnt]

@@_Vengeance_ Maybe the robot has a stronger AI than the door, so if the players would just need to duel the door, they'd have an easier time breaking in.

[@aerokatchem3678]

@@e3Gewinntno cause imagine someone breaks into your home and you found out they beat your safe in a duel for your stuff 💀

[@willis2224]

​@@aerokatchem3678 Well I mean if you're not there to duel them yourself there still needs to be some sort of security. If your safe can't duel for itself is it even worth it?

[@Silvershadowfire]

One thing that most people forget, including the writers, is that Yuugi won controlling shares in Industrial Illusions when he won Duellist Kingdom. Controlling shares. He owns 51% of the most successful company in the world. That kid is absolutely filthy rich, so if he wants to spend his time making games for fun, he totally can. Also, Darkside of Dimensions was the greatest love letter to the fans ever :) Also: F*ck marry kill: Yami Bakura, Yami Yuugi/Atem and Insector Haga ^^

[@markrobs2954]

I will do all three things to Bakura in that order.

[@Kiaxet]

I appreciate the implication that one would *survive* any intimate contact with Yami Bakura.

[@JT5555]

I Thought The Prizes Were Just The Title And The Money And The Business,Itself Was Just The Side Thing With Kaiba?

[@mammajoe28]

Wait.... so if he owns 51% of the most successful company in the world, does that mean he technically owns more than Kaiba? If so, that's gotta be a really huge blow to Kaiba's Ego.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

@@mammajoe28 Well... according to Takahashi, in 1 continuity at least Kaiba even funds Yugi in his creation of a new game. But under the condition that Blue-Eyes White Dragon must be there because of course Kaiba would ask that

[@lucascunha4465]

Original duel with Arcana: The one who loses this duel will have their LEGS CUT OFF BY THESE SAWS! Dubbed duel with Arcana: The one who loses this duel will be sent to the shadow realm (by these saws)!

[@darkmyro]

yep, magic glowing saws!

[@willhiggins9563]

I thought saws was a weird choice?

[@terraventusaqua123]

Dark Energy Disks

[@lucinae8512]

To be honest, the thought of having your feet sawed off by giant buzz blades is a bit gruesome for a PG-13 rating at the time.

[@sanfransiscon]

It's like being "sent to another dimension" in DBZ

[@Phantom9252]

"Which was uh... arms manufacturing!" wait so... Seto is the adoptive son of an arms manufacturer who pivots the company to more commercial endeavors and leads it to more economic growth than it's ever seen? And his adoptive father's biological son to hold a grudge against him?? OH MY GOT SETO KAIBA IS IRON MAN!!!

[@pedroportela6476]

That's.... not that far off

[@josearce8702]

Remember that the biological son is qn artificial intelligence trying to destroy him, kinda like Ulton

[@cammo353]

No he's Kaibaman

[@TheIronGiant12]

Nah iron man wishes he was seto kaiba

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

And just like a certain other dude who thinks he's Iron Man, he's the bad guy.

[@lightsabreclasher]

I like how this starts as "Wow, early Yugioh was weird!" and then suddenly morphs into "Kaiba pulled off a real-world Cultural Victory by way of card games".

[@House_Of_Champs]

Anyone who has been addicted to yugioh and got into the actual tournament scene can understand the storybuilding of it taking over the world around it, because it truly takes over your world. You travel to events, eat breath and plan around playing, and it really takes over.

[@draco84oz]

You should start watching LRR's Friday Nights. It'll feel familiar... Plus you'll be watching another quality Canadian product.

[@MatheusI7]

I LOVE YOU CHAMP

[@hrocxvid]

What’s good comment section!

[@jriver3145]

I grew up with yugioh as a big part of my childhood. A lot of my best friends today were made 10+ years ago in sweaty tournament venues. I've placed in the top cut in the UK national championships, competed at the European and attended world championships. I think the beauty of the real life game lies in the sense of community that surrounds competitive play. Though I will say this; the professional yugioh community can be extremely elitist and at times toxic.

[@House_Of_Champs]

@@jriver3145 I think that environment exist on almost anything competitive that has a fanbase. People get big egos talking theory and success. You'll see it in smash, the FGC, and a lot of games. The YuGiOh community has grown a lot but you'll def see hazing still. You need a good core group of friends either getting in or to grow with when being competitive imo, ironically similar to the show.

[@AnimeGirl4891]

“His perfectly quaffed hair.” That sounds like something Little Kuriboh would say.

[@scottbecker4367]

DSoD Kaiba is basically a parody of DM Kaiba, and it's the greatest 😂

[@PolarPhantom]

Considering LK's popularity it wouldn't surprise me.

[@tiajoseph7309]

I was thinking the same thing and was laughing my ass off.

[@AnimeGirl4891]

@@PolarPhantom True

[@AnimeGirl4891]

@@tiajoseph7309 ^ ^

[@luiscortazar6291]

Man the straight faced way he addresses the world building is fascinating.

[@machina5]

He watches anime for a living so this isn't far off from his usual entertainment.

[@berilsevvalbekret772]

To be fair so is our world.

[@machina5]

@@berilsevvalbekret772 What?

[@inamerica55585]

Honestly the most impressive thing about Kazuki Takahashi's writing is that despite being shackled to a brand he managed to bring his story ALL THE WAY BACK AROUND to season 0 by ending the original series in Millenium World with the exact same situation as season 0: a tabletop RPG against Yami Bakura. That's the kind of dedication you don't usually see even in a long form series writer, especially one working on promoting a product.

[@ragnarockerbunny]

Man finished Yu Gi Oh on his own terms and for that has my deepest respect. While I wish he did animangas for GX and 5D's or at least oversaw some animangas, the original Yu Gi Oh is such a complete and cathartic story I'd be okay even if there weren't any sequels. We lost a legend too young, man.

[@KatiePayneVlogs]

YES!!!

[@animeguitarguy]

Well said. Yu-Gi-Oh may have it's bad moments but it is one of the most well ended stories ever told.

[@ClulssCrs3310]

Kazuki was a hero to himself in his work, a hero to the world when he jumped to save a life. A man of pure integrity. Rest in peace sensei.

[@BugsyFoga]

The world where the only way people solve problems is by playing a children's card game .

[@lVicel]

It's much better than participating in Wars

[@RayShadow278]

Honestly that still sounds better than the methods we use to solve problems in our world

[@IamJerf]

and if you lose, you go to hell

[@Charok1]

world where the best cheat is friendship

[@Clone6385]

IamJerf no you get sent to Ultramar

[@RobertoBlake]

Kaiba is the embodiment of petty.

[@avroarchitect1793]

Seto "Fuck You! I've Got Money!" Kaiba

[@eavyeavy2864]

Doing what matters

[@Azzazz1n97]

"screw the money, I have rules... no wait let me try that again!"

[@arjunwali9885]

@@avroarchitect1793 more like Seto "I've got fuck you money" Kaiba

[@binghambud]

Well if he's petty what are you?

[@luccanelson768]

“Card game-industrial complex” is the best collection of noises that has ever passed my eardrums

[@shadenox8164]

Considering by GX the navy's job seems to be as an armed escort for rare trading cards.

[@haroldmosley1751]

That sounds like something the ygotas version of Kaiba would say.

[@seekingabsolution1907]

That moment where Seto Kaiba literally declares himself god and everyone just cheers.

[@timothymclean]

Everyone says Elon Musk wants to be Tony Stark, but his true aspirations are to be Seto Kaiba.

[@chrisschoenthaler5184]

@@timothymclean Pretty high standards. He really should aim for something a bit more attainable. Like colonizing Mars. Let’s be honest, Kaiba probably did that, and he did it just so he could be the first person to win a duel on Mars.

[@SandsBuisle]

@@chrisschoenthaler5184 Nah, Kaiba wouldn't settle for beating just anyone on Mars. He'd bring some top notch duelist, like resurrecting Atem again, just to prove himself.

[@loganhauser1554]

seto kaiba took over the world econamy with card games and invented a time machine just to play a card game and more. he is the best god

[@chrisschoenthaler5184]

@@SandsBuisle He colonized Mars purely so he could finally hold the title of “World Champion”. In fact, he probably colonized several planets so that he could officially become the Solar System Champion, just to spite Yugi and Atem.

[@spartan4196]

"Screw economics I have money" -Seto Kaiba probably

[@jotheunissen9274]

Screw money, he has green hair

[@akabaneaki]

bet you anything that even the president bows to him lol

[@ABZB13]

money printer goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[@slavishentity6705]

Seto Kaiba is so rich he can buy economy

[@sirapple589]

I read the Yu-Gi-Oh manga before I watched the anime. Yami Yugi took no shit. The arcs were BRUTAL. You mentioned Yami killing a convict by tricking him into lighting himself on fire, but that’s not even the most painful thing he did to someone. That T.V Director you talked about? He wanted to capture a student being bullied on camera so he told one of his assistants to put on the school uniform and beat the shit out of Yugi. The director talks to Yugi while he’s on the ground in pain and tells him not to worry about his identity being broadcast because they’ll mosaic his face. So how does Yami punish the director? He makes it so that the director can only see in mosaic. There’s a kid that has a magic dragon card game where you bet your soul. That ends with that kid getting his soul eaten by the dragons. The Millenium Ring that Bakura wears? You see those spikes hanging off it? When he gets possessed they stab into his chest. Yami literally Mind Break’s Kaiba after he wins the duel for his Grandpa. Kaiba hires a literal serial killer that ripped young children to shreds to face Yugi and his friends in the tower. Those yo-yo’s you mentioned? Yugi gets stuck on a tin roof with his opponents using them to steadily break the roof. The rock ‘em Sock ‘em robots battle has both Yami and the villain take physical damage when their fighter gets hit. But none of those are my favourite moment. My favourite moment doesn’t even have Yugi in the final face off. My favourite moment revolves around Bruce Lee’s infamous “One Inch Punch”. The villain does something to Yugi and Joey gets angry. He follows the villain and confronts him. Joey wants a fight and the villain proposes a game to go along with it. Joey agrees. The game is that while they’re fighting, they each have a knife in their mouths with the tip facing towards them. This is incredibly dangerous but Joey does it anyway. The villain has two advantages: 1: He has mastered Bruce Lee’s One Inch Punch. 2: The knife he has in his mouth has a retractable blade, if it gets hit it’ll retract and leave him unharmed. I’m not going to give a play by play of the fight, I strongly encourage anyone reading this to go and read the manga. Suffice to say that Joey wins, Yugi thanks him and Joey is happy. It’s a wonderful display of friendship.

[@AtlasNYC_]

So you went through all of that only to blue ball me?????

[@kush2319]

Why would you blue ball us like that. All that build up, only to make me feel like a smurf

[@sirapple589]

Kush I feel like I couldn’t do it the justice it deserves by writing it out. Leaving it that way tempts people into reading it for themselves. I’ll re-read the moment and reply with a play by play if you would like?

[@kush2319]

Sir Apple that sounds great. Please do that

[@tamerafarly7666]

Sounds crazy

[@shadowwarrior3444]

You know Takahashi did state that there was a sincere possibility that Yugi's game would make a breakthrough, as there is art of him and Kaiba playing it, but then again of course Kaiba would support Yugi's game...it gives him another opportunity to beat him...and another taste of defeat.

[@weberman173]

iirc taka also said that kaiba only sponsored Yugi under the condition that the game woudl have BEWD in it, which is just peak kaiba

[@coins_png]

@@weberman173 the happy ending

[@bearandthebull2372]

Even if kaiba couldn't get yugi's game famous,he would probably play it with simply out of respect and a chance to beat him. Which is both petty and wholesome given their relationship.

[@elijahpadilla5083]

@@bearandthebull2372 After DSOD, he's been taught the lesson that, after his grudge match with Atem, little Yugi has matured into a King of Games all on his own, and someone as competitive as him needs somebody to butt heads with to keep sharp.

[@Love-Sensibility]

@@elijahpadilla5083 looks like somebody's gotta keep up

[@jayminthomas936]

I think one thing we forget is that Kaiba was in Yugi’s class at the start of the show and then the next episode he’s just owned his company taking over the world

[@vampir753]

I cannot imagine how awful this was for Kaibas classmates: "Just look at you underachiever, being so proud about entering the 11 grade, whilst your classmate has somehow built a multi billion dollar company"

[@rynobehnke8289]

@@vampir753 I mean not necessarily. The Kaiba bros are actually beloved by the youth (and mind you Kaiba did network all of Japans arcades together so that they could share high scores entirely so that everyone could see how he had the high scores in almost every game)

[@guyperson754]

This is basically the equivalent of Magic: the Gathering outright replacing the entirety of the New York Stock Exchange, the United Nations, and NATO in roughly the same amount of time it took a high schooler to get through the trigonometry unit of grade 10 math.

[@StormForthcoming]

card games are very serious business my friend.

[@voxelverse]

Like imagine if a magic the gathering trading website suddenly handled currency transactions

[@catatoblob8598]

That would be more reasonable if magic the gathering allows users to do actual magic.

[@WhoWatchesVideos]

"Like everyone who graduated in 1999, they really had no way of knowing" As someone who graduated in 2015, I still felt that.

[@WhaleManMan]

Most of you people are almost always unaffected by any recession and just use it to have a victim complex.

[@brunoga1360]

As someone who graduated in 2020, I still feel that

[@MeepChangeling]

@@WhaleManMan Unable to retire in the future. Unable to ever own a home. Unable to ever save enough to not be an employee. Unable to afford simple dreams like a vacation, ever. Yeah. Sure. We super are not effected by recessions. Get a load of this moron, folks.

[@KeiruKeiru]

The most horrifying aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh world: sleeves do not exist.

[@alphaomegagiant]

Well I figure the fact that cards in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh are seemingly made of some razor-thin metal alloy (since Kaiba can literally throw them like shuriken and they can seemingly be completely submerged in water without sustaining damage) is the reason why no one bothered with sleeves.

[@cherrychocolate1434]

@@alphaomegagiant I mean, cards are super inconsistent on what they're made of. Like, they're strong enough to jam guns and be used as weapons in their own right, but can also be torn effortlessly like paper. In Japanese, Kaiba even remarks before he throws a card at someone that he hopes it isn't Blue-Eyes because he doesn't wanna risk bending the card, so they obviously can be damaged. And sometimes, cards are undamaged when submerged in water and can be dried off in order to be used again without wear or tear (like what happened to Rafael in the Waking the Dragons arc), and sometimes they're straight up ruined in water (like when Chazz threw Bastion's cards into the water in season one of Yugioh GX).

[@MaJuV]

@@cherrychocolate1434 Not to mention, have you tried ripping a foil card apart by hand? The foil makes it nigh impossible. How did Kaiba do that?

[@elijahpadilla5083]

@@cherrychocolate1434 Water seems to be the most consistent way cards are destroyed in the anime and manga, even though cards frequently get lit on fire, scattered to the winds, buried in snow, or fired off into space.

[@meganmartin3373]

It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize you were talking about card sleeves and not shirt sleeves.

[@ragnarockerbunny]

Things Kaiba has done because he hates Yugi: - Build an electric chair rollercoaster - Kidnapped an old game shop owner - Hire a serial killer. Honestly this should have solved his problem and it is amazing that it didn't. - Invent like, 3 different forms of handheld card game hologram technology - Involve the mafia in the deaths of the original owners of the blue eyes white dragon - Build dimension warping VR tech and an accompanying satellite - Hire Mercenaries to kill Yugi in a deadly game of laser tag - Build a room with falling concrete cubes to crush this perfectly coiffed pointy headed classmate - Allow his younger brother to play fast food russian roulette with Yugi

[@timothymclean]

If I might offer a suggestion, I'd put the serial killer one either first or last, to maximize the impact of both that one thing Kaiba did because he hates Yugi and how silly the size of the list is.

[@jofx4051]

Seems like legit psychopath and should put in asylum

[@SomeJerkOnTheInternet]

He and Reverse Flash would get along splendidly

[@rynobehnke8289]

I love how the serial killed one wasn't even beaten by the Pharaoh but but a plan from Yugi that Jonouchi simply executed. Also don't forget the Hologram tech build specifically to drive someone insane with it to mimic the penalty game he got after losing to the Pharaoh the first time around.

[@alejandromolina7270]

I don't know. That sounds like friends material, says the manga and anime.

[@mutantmaster1]

There are three versions: Sub, Dub, and LittleKuriboh

[@watsonwrote]

All have their own special place in our hearts

[@DubExp]

4kids....them finger guns...

[@musicfighter282]

I’d argue the manga is even separate from all those versions as well.

[@caelinnis]

Screw the dub I have abridged

[@juliagoodwin3461]

LittleKuriboh all the way!

[@PhoenixLance13]

I never even once paused to consider Yu-Gi-Oh worldbuilding and now that I have I feel like I've taken a step beyond Alice's looking glass and into some brand new world.

[@Shr00ms30]

Pokemon, the anime, can learn a thing or two from Yugioh, like you can have different protagonists on different eras and not have ashe chug on the fountain of youth for what it feels like 20 years already

[@pn2294]

You could say the same about American comic books

[@austenmoore7326]

I’m pretty sure it’s been right at 20 years now lol

[@wysp272]

At least 25 years now

[@zjzr08]

I dunno, I like the niche it has compared to others in the genre. It's the closest thing to a reality show for me, not much big actually happens everytime, but they're interesting enough to stick too, then you do see them develop as the episodes go on. He did win a regional league after 20 years or so, and did improve his standings for each region, with Unova argurably his only bad patch. Digimon for me fills that other niche where it is more character focused and development for its creatures are done quite differently.

[@sadepearce7675]

Yugioh dialogue seems a lot more mature than Pokémon could ever dream of being. That's why I'd still watch Yugioh but not pokemon. Watching pokemon is like watching Dora.

[@queenofthesalt5199]

Rest In Peace Takahashi… your story affected millions, and the card game that spawned from it deserves everything.

[@musicfighter282]

Solitaire-orrist is both insane and absolutely accurate

[@justsomeguywithaforeheadmu6209]

Agreed

[@dragonarchive7443]

Good nickname for Gouki and Drytron players.

[@thewerdna]

Let's just appreciate the fact Kaiba made a device that can literally allow you to travel into the ancient Egyptian afterlife... so he could play a card game with his rival one more time.

[@guillermopena8412]

And he probably lost anyways.

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

If Seto Kaiba were to win he would have nothing left to pursue and fall into a self destructive spiral. He has to lose to be kept humble.

[@Stormraider821]

@@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture Seto Kaiba and the word humble do not mix. But yeah, knowing Kaiba, victory would be boring. Since he has everything else in the world. If he were to obtained it, his life would likely lose all meaning.

[@TheEvilProfessorMonoCulture]

Kaiba would be looking for a stronger opponent and since one doesn't exist; he would have to challenge himself hence the spiral

[@BillyLegumbres]

What does a man gain by taking the whole world, if he loses himself within.

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

The expansion of Duel Monsters wasn't as rapid as you made it seem in this video. I remember one scene in the Battle City Arc where a middle aged man was trying to drive his car in the city but the streets were closed. He then complains about how all these kids were playing a game he's never even heard of and he had to suffer through the consequences. What I gather from this is that the rest of the world might not have embraced Duels Monsters so quickly. In its early days, the only people we really see play duel monsters are teens (with a few adults). But because all of the show's main characters are kids, we only ever see people raving about and playing the game. This creates a bias when the audience sees the show, we are only seeing things from inside the dueling bubble. The older crowd probably had no idea what this game was but we never see them because they are outside our cast of main characters. So while dueling might seem big with tournaments, the rest of world generally didn't care. But in GX, the card game is a whole different animal! In GX's world, all of the teens have become adults and can how begin institutionalizing dueling in society. Now we have schools and academic degrees dedicated to dueling, things that didn't exist in the original series. This is when it's become fully ingrained in society where even adults participate. I don't think the popularity of dueling is too unlike the popularity of esports. Teens and young adults might thinks the expansion is super rapid and now the sport is everywhere but that's now true. They just live in their bubble of the gaming and the internet. But if you ask most adults, they probably don't know what esports is. I suspect the situation is the exact same for duel monsters in the first YU-GI-OH series.

[@clayxros576]

Also ancient magic helping along the popularity.

[@Stinkoman87]

Another moment that stands out to me is when Bakura reveals he's a duelist and Yugi acts surprised by that fact. Whereas in later series you can just take for granted that everyone has a deck even if you never see them duel.

[@faithjolley6034]

But by the time GX rolls around, Dueling is a viable career option, there's dueling schools, and even Chazz's brothers believes that this card game is an important key to "taking over the world."

[@Deathmare235]

I’m pretty sure it was after battle city I mean Yugi became the king of games

[@logicaloverdrive8197]

@@faithjolley6034 in 5ds, there's a duel where it looks like the guys are gonna whip out guns, but they both just have stylized duel disks.

[@Owl-yc2yu]

Ironically, despite Kaiba's attempt to redefine Kaiba Corp as a game company instead of arms manufacturing, he turned Duel Monsters into the world's weapon.

[@wesleypatterson2989]

"....and without his competition, Joey is looking at a potentially bright future as a pro duelist." Interesting fact, there's an early episode of 5D's where Joey makes a cameo appearance and you can hear a background character say something to the effect of "Whoa, that's Joey Wheeler, one of the most legendary duelists of all time!"

[@HoveringAboveMyself]

@@10tailedbijuu Anzu* There's a character in 5Ds that was Yugi's classmate (Trudge, the bully) and he isn't exactly old, in his 40s maybe?

[@Ilvocare]

So that's not what happens in the dub. There's someone who looks like Joey, one offscreen person speaks out "Whoa is that Joey Wheeler", and another guy quickly responds with "Nah man it's his cousin Jesse Wheeler." Thanks to that exchange, a character who was a complete nobody in the sub now has his own wikia page.

[@horndog9295]

HoveringAboveMyself o yea

[@HaganeNoGijutsushi]

Doesn't 5D take place like centuries afterwards? Or am I missing something? I never watched it except for bits and pieces.

[@elijahpadilla5083]

@@HoveringAboveMyself Apparently, in canon Trudge is 50 when initially introduced as Sector Security, meaning that 5Ds is only 35 years after the beginning of DM.

[@eddnovirus234]

“Kidnapping his grandpa for cardboard” I cannot breath from laughing. I mean it is really nice looking cardboard

[@hughman9975]

It's even shiny foil cardboard

[@nohbuddy1]

Hey the Honus Wagner card recently sold for over $3 Million. Totally kidnap worthy

[@thestargamers3325]

Not for cardboard. For the experience of owning cardboard.

[@dr4c0blade]

Yugi: "Dude, aren't you overreacting? It's just a card game." Kaiba: "Card games are serious business!" Also, in summary; screw the rules, Kaiba has money.

[@AndreNitroX]

Very true

[@draketheduelist]

In Seto Kaiba's defense, he was an orphan. No money, no parents, and basically nothing to his name but a bottomless well of willpower. Everybody points out Seto's massive wealth, but few remember that he knew poverty more than most of us ever will.* He played chess with cheap plastic pieces for so long that he was able to beat Gozuboro Kaiba to force him to adopt him and Mokuba, and things only went up from there. Sure he was kinda' evil (which was more or less the gimmick of the series at that point), but after Yugi beat him and destroyed the darkness in his heart, Seto was able to reassemble the pieces of his heart (which is why it's called the Millennium *Puzzle* and not the Millennium Pyramid) into someone who had all the drive he used to have, but without his more hostile ambitions. Incidentally, this is why Kaiba considers Yugi such an iconic rival. Unlike in the dub, where Kaiba is an irrational flat earth atheist who will jump through all manner of hoops to claim that magic isn't real, Japanese Kaiba acknowledged magic's existence, but hated it because that kind of warfare and violence was a reminder of his own past. He wanted to put everything painful in his past behind him, and he made the Pharaoh into his own personal avatar of that past. Just look at how both characters contextualize memory: one wants to forget a past he hates, while the other tries desperately to remember a past he forgot. [* This is also related to why Seto relentlessly craps on Jounouchi because he represents what Seto could've been, both in a positive way (his protectiveness of his own sibling) and a negative way (being a dumb, irresponsible slacker who skates by on luck and the charity of others).] You can see a lot of Kaiba's philosophy in the way he duels. (As you can with a lot of characters, which is why I hate it when people dismiss the card game as hollow commercialism rather than an illustration of who that character is as a person.) Blue-Eyes aside, ever noticed how strong some of Kaiba's 4-star drops can be? La Jinn, Battle Ox, Vorse Raider, Slate Warrior, Spear Dragon, Kaiser Seahorse, X Head Cannon, Cave Dragon... they're all very strong for their level, just like Kaiba had to be very strong for his relatively young age. Just about the only noteworthy exception to this rule is Saggi the Dark Clown, and three guesses who *that's* supposed to represent. In fact, a common archetype in many of his decks are virus-based cards (notably Crush Card Virus). While one might think that has more to do with Kaiba's programming and hacking skills, viruses are about the most definitive example of something small taking out something larger and more powerful, which is basically the story of his life.

[@hitmonchan52]

Who's saggi

[@sharibyaku]

Imagine thinking THIS seriously about a manga/anime about a children’s card game

[@Da_Swifta]

@@sharibyaku you completely missed the point of what he was trying to say, and in your statement you took a big fat dump on all of the character-building and development that Kazuki Takahashi wrote for his characters and story. Assuming that anything related to a product is devoid of story and character is such a massive leap of logic that I can't even comprehend what your thought process was. Kaiba is a character first and foremost, and a marketing tool second. Not the other way around.

[@Sanguivore]

@@sharibyaku Imagine dismissing something intellectual, emotional, and thought-provoking on the basis that it’s centered around a children’s card game.

[@zeehero7280]

Yeah Kaiba is a rags to riches story, and his story embodies both sides of capitalism, everything right and good about it, the reason it remains the only truly successful economic model the world has ever known, and also how it can just like anything else, become corrupt and destroy peoples lives, and take over the world for evil and petty grudge matches.

[@jimmybopped1154]

“And Who’s responsible, you’ll have an answer. Then yet, a name. And his name is -“ KZbin Ad ensues

[@gangalicious3000]

Bruh same

[@antonbrown17]

my ad was one that started with someone saying "my name is _____" so you can imagine how hard I laughed when the transition came and I wasn't looking at the screen 😂

[@RedPointRadio]

the ad that played at that moment started with the "look at this photograph" meme and I lost it

[@hallofguns8174]

I swear he did that on purpose.

[@KingAiras]

LOL MINE WAS RAID SHADOW LEGENDS OF COURSE

[@shenanigans8353]

The yugioh universe's obsession with the card game and making advances to it leads to possible post-apocalyptic futures as depicted in 5ds were antagonists come from a future caused by humanity losing control of the power source of card games on motorcycles This crap is why I love yugioh though

[@clayxros576]

And then we got Paradox. "ThE fUtUrE!"

[@outtaideas849]

It was forshadowed all the way in GX. the sky was the same as the sky in the genocide shot in the 5Ds opening

[@matteo964]

Well, in yugioh cards are magic, but i get the joke

[@KRDiStort]

Paradox's claim of "someone was playing a card game, and boom, end of the world" is suddenly feeling a lot more feasible...

[@wretchedcats4909]

Seto kaiba is such a ridiculous character that when they revealed in GX that he sent cards into deep space for no other reason than “fuck you I can” I couldn’t even raise any objections to how absurd of a concept that is because that was EXACTLY something yugioh one Kaiba would do.

[@appelofdoom8211]

I like to think he was just disgusted by the mere concept that any sentient life form out there didn't know about duel monsters.

[@vampir753]

It is just so great how Kaiba is probably the most intelligent and capable being on earth and at the same time just completely and utterly batshit insane, being obsessed with a fucking card game. Any normal person in the Yu-gi-oh world could be completely aware of how ridiculous it is what that billionaire is doing and at the same time completely unable to stop him simply because Kaiba is just so much superior.

[@mattia1026]

Elon Musk ripping off Kaiba by sending a Tesla in space

[@guggelguggel7491]

@@vampir753 hyperfixations be like that, be glad he's into card games and not "actual" weapons (though he did manage to weaponize card games too)

[@BobLogical]

Important to note that the anime and manga continuity aren't the same. In GX, it seems like Yugi did go on to be a pro duelist and defend his title basically up to his retirement or death. In the manga, we don't really know what might have happened to him since it's unclear if the spinoff manga adaptions are meant to follow in the original series' continuity or be their own thing, though a drawing from Takahashi's Instagram seems to imply that a "possible future" has Kaiba agreeing to finance and publish Yugi's game in between playtesting sessions in his space station. Either way, he seems like he'll be okay.

[@christopherb501]

Uh...Yugi's not _dead_ in the anime, at least by GX. We see him in the very first episode, as well as the penultimate (only possibly with the latter; there's reason to believe the ceremonial duel wasn't a real event).

[@HenriqueRJchiki]

@@christopherb501 He's not dead because he appears in the movie which is timeskipped and canon

[@rpsyco]

Also, Darkside of Dimensions is manga canon as opposed to anime canon.

[@Deathmare235]

You got it mixed up Yugi was the King of games in the manga and while he still is in the anime he lost his passion of dueling at least Kaiba still had his skill being one of 2 humans to survive against Nightshroud

[@mistresssaturn]

I swear that line about the Pharaoh's hair is a dare to Little Kuriboh.

[@vee_kay21]

I still CANNOT believe the insane switch the manga made from "boy possessed by Egyptian spirit that wants to murder people with games" to "boy somewhat possessed by Egyptian guy plays a single card game and yells about friendship"

[@kevinbell5674]

I don't know, I always saw it as character progression.

[@ashleightompkins3200]

Well technically he started by yelling about friendship, it was just the murderous Egyptian spirit was quite... protective of those friends... to the point where I'm now wondering what would have happened if someone decided not to go out with him one day for one reason or another...

[@marsproductions7484]

To GX which is about “boy fused his soul with a demon who is his girlfriend or protector in a previous life “ Or 5Ds “teen builds a motorcycle for scraps then gets a shiny tattoo which allows him to control a super dragon so he can fight a metal band with other shiny tattoos “ Or Zexal “boy stops an alien war by killing a god “ Or Arc V “boy shatters the rules of 4 dimensions and meets himself so he can find his girlfriend who killed him in a previous life “ And finally Vrians “good SAO with card games “

[@vee_kay21]

@@marsproductions7484 Yu-Gi-Oh has never been one for a simple, believable premise. It's amazing and I love it

[@marsproductions7484]

VanKampwn yeah and that Jojo level of insanity is kinda why I go back to these shows (and jack Atles)

[@Fredfredbug4]

Kaiba propels humanity into a technological golden age because he lost a card game once.

[@TrollCapAmerica]

He probably accepts that every cloud has a silver lining but still warps space/time/dimension for a rematch

[@perfidiously8041]

I like how in GX, when an entire school of 100+ goes missing (sucked into another dimension), Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions are the people to show up. Not the government, why would they care about missing kids? Nope, the only people to solve this are the trading card companies. Not to mention all the missing students whose disappearances were straight-up covered up by the school. It's no wonder Neo Domino City wound up Like That when it's pretty clear the world became a capitalist hell where Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions have the only real power. In short: I appreciate this video takes YGO worldbuilding seriously! I've been screaming internally for so long.

[@ShinigamiInuyasha777]

I can't stop thinking the moment when Kaiba just put his face in most screens of Domino City in the movie and no one thought it was weird

[@genyakozlov1316]

@Aizette Yea! A great one! Just give it some time, and you'll be in love by season 3.

[@lethauntic]

They should have been communist so that no one would have had enough freedom to have done anything like that.

[@fyrentenimar]

I imagine at that point Kaiba Corp *is* the government.

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

@@lethauntic I too love regurgitating anticommunist propaganda

[@quirbiefe7544]

I'm sure this entire video was a class in that Duel Academy titled "how did card games became literally the most important thing in the whole world".

[@christopherfleetwood5252]

The answer may surprise you... (commercial break) ...and the answer is Egyptian Black Magic!

[@michaelramon2411]

I believe they title it "How The World Came To Its Senses."

[@BaronB.BlazikenBaronOfBarons]

I want to see an arc villain who’s not into Yu-Gi-Oh, he’s just some random, buff asshole who pissed off the heroes, and the entire arc is just the entire cast (including the other villains) trying to convince the guy to get into Yu-Gi-Oh and be emotionally invested in it, so that the heroes can beat him in a card and for it to have weight to him.

[@mastergalladetech]

SHAMELESS PLUG TIME!!!! I'm actually writing a fan fic where a female student goes to Duel Academy as a guinea pig for testing out core classes while also taking two dueling class even though she'd rather do anything other than be traumatized by card games again.

[@KnakuanaRka]

Or even better, a side/important heroic character who finds it easier to talk their way out of problems, trick people, or heck, just beat whoever’s in their way into a pulp and grab what they need before bolting, and contributes to the heroes by getting them out of situations where bad guys are prepared to duel but not for other trickery, or places where dueling just isn’t useful.

[@michaelramon2411]

How about a villain who is a right bastard, manipulative, vile, a dastardly criminal who threatens everything the protagonists love... and he doesn't play card games. Thus, he is immune to all of the heroes attempts to stop him!

[@Merandil94]

That's when the Pharaoh has a fallback onto his Season 0 habits and just ices him, lets be honest.

[@mawile2468]

Atem would go Season 0 and just kill the guy in one episode

[@FaizeofMist]

Kaiba built a space elevator to fight with his dead boyfriend. Do you guys ever sit there and think about how Seto is the real main character of the entire franchise

[@StarboyXL9]

Yugioh is Yaoi?

[@FaizeofMist]

@@StarboyXL9 Yaoioh

[@Weigazod]

@@FaizeofMist I read that dj before. It ended with a gaping anus.

[@dracosmith7781]

@@FaizeofMist yuBIoh

[@omechron]

>"As revenge for beating him at a card game once." The best part is that while that's technically true, I think it's even funnier that in the manga at least, that previous card game ended with the Pharaoh trapping Kaiba in a nightmare world for months and would have left him there forever if he hadn't been impressed by the chutzpah Mokuba showed when he tried to cut Yugi's finger off. God I wish we could see where the manga would have gone if it had stayed weird. Also... Kaiba shot a bunch of cards Judai had designed into space for no reason. Elon Musk shot a car into space for no reason. Coincidence?

[@Kobolds_in_a_trenchcoat]

Wait, the manga DIDN'T stay weird?!?!

[@Oscar4u69]

coincidence!? I THINK NOT!

[@rpsyco]

"If aliens do exist, then we're gonna teach them how to duel."

[@TeamAPS]

*OMG you're finally covering Yu-Gi-Oh in a video! My time has come. Time to strap in!*

[@frostyblade8842]

This is the crossover we've all been waiting for. It needs to happen

[@lokephoenix1039]

Fancy seeing you here!

[@nolanwood99]

Ohai Paul

[@alecchristiaen4856]

I guess the real monster was the AAA megacorp they made along the way.

[@kaistephens2694]

Kazuki Takahashi...... You created an empire, and enriched the lives and childhoods of millions. May you enrich heaven in the same way.

[@KatiePayneVlogs]

❤❤❤

[@Outcastsandmutants]

Every day we get closer to Geoff reviewing 5Ds, will his love of Yu-Gi-Oh and Initial D collide in the future, we can only hope

[@RayShadow278]

Ok but really tho 5Ds is just great lol

[@creaturesoul4469]

Hopefully he looks at the sub version though cause dub cuts a lot of stuff out, including the last season

[@HalfDemonInuyasha]

@@RayShadow278 The first half is decent enough (up through the Dark Signers arc), but the second half? Ehh...

[@halowaffle25]

@@HalfDemonInuyasha first half of 5ds and all of Vrains (save for like 5 episodes in the middle) are both peak Yugioh imo, on par with the original.

[@jsc315]

5Ds can't be reviewed. It a lifestyle

[@quipildor7]

Let’s not forget that Kaiba also started a space program to teach aliens how to play Duel Monsters.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

if ZEXAL is any indication, aliens already know how to play Yu-GiOH

[@Shiirow]

card games on flying saucers.

[@vtheory7531]

When your economy runs on card games, becoming a pro duelist is actually a good career move.

[@erickjr9]

Once you continue watching every series, you realize that saying things like "This world is just one of four dimensions created after the duel between a talented girl and her crazy friend with his four dragons" or "The universe itself was created by a card" or even "This guy traveled from the future to recover a secret card, his mind is shared between him and his deceased brothers, also his mom from the past is in love with him", don't sound weird at all.

[@catfan913]

well it's not fair to include the manga, those are always weirder. the arc-v manga was especially certainly something

[@luissaumeth8000]

Without the "yuzu is yuya's mom and she was in love with him" Arc-V manga was peak

[@NoahOfTheArc]

It's nice to see someone point out how interesting Yugioh's mashup of ancient magic and staggeringly advanced technology is.

[@valletas]

Reminds me of DOOM

[@SangerZonvolt]

New Yugi: It´s time to d-d-d-d-d-duel! Old Yugi: It´s time to d-d-d-d-d-d-die!

[@bean3550]

The absolutely bananas implications of Kaiba Corp really overshadows some of the truly ridiculous villain plots going on 1. Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom tournament is an elaborate experiment in necromancy to recurrect his dead wife 2. A literal underground organization of Egyptian gravekeepers traumatizes their messianic heir so badly he develops actual dissociative identity disorder and is prepared to kill the pharaoh and then himself 3. Ryou Bakura, world's softest softboy, is harboring the ultimate embodiment of Chaotic Evil and only barely acknowledges it 4. Noah Kaiba...exists

[@slynthehedgehog8061]

To be fair, Noah exist only in the anime in a filler arc. Also his green hair is a reference to Seto in season 0, so no reason to be so off-put by it.

[@syrelian]

It wasn't really an experiment, but rather a gambit to gather the necessary power, no experimentation involved The plots are hilarious and its double hilarious when you realize all the villains now play the card game instead of just summoning their demons Only Dartz went with "Summon Kaiju, kill people"

[@timothymclean]

@@syrelian Why bother learning a new system of magic when everyone in the world carries around 40-60 pieces of supernatural cardstock? That's like learning assembly code when you could just hack something together in Python, if everyone in the world coded Python as their primary hobby.

[@syrelian]

@@timothymclean Half of the villains already know the ancient demon summoning magicks tho, but just set it aside to use trading cards that make them possible to fight

[@bean3550]

​@@slynthehedgehog8061you misunderstand, Noah Kaiba is hilarious I just meant he has a lot going on lol. One of them "most character ever" candidates, as all Kaibas tend to be

[@antaresmaelstrom5365]

In my head-canon it is strictly BECAUSE Duel Monsters was such a faithful recreation by Pegasus, that some amount of magic possibly within the very drawing remained and caused a Master effect on anyone that sees it. The game is a giant if subtle cognito-hazard that slowly causes a shift in anyone's behaviour to favor its own dissemination and popularity.

[@friendlypunk8975]

“You’ll have an answer, better yet, a name. And that name is... RAID SHADOW LEGENDS” One of the funniest ad timings ever.

[@christopherfleetwood5252]

I got “River Boy” from a Beer commercial... (I DON’T EVEN DRINK?!?!?!?!?! O.o

[@mastergalladetech]

I got Reese's

[@TK-nn8jd]

'Egyptian Revenge Ghost' sounds like an awesome metal album.

[@Herodegon]

Seto Kaiba: The only man capable of transforming modern society into one soley dependent on his monopolized children's card game culture.

[@omegamysterio3701]

Honestly Seto Kaiba is not just a... Just unimaginably wealthy edgelord, he's a force of nature, a way of life, a man who can summon a literal GOD because he just can, a man who pretty much owns the entire world in a short amount of time and constructed a space elevator with a base shaped like the company logo! THIS is a man who looked at reality and all its limitations and said "Screw the rules because... I am Seto Kaiba!.... Also I have money." Seto Kaiba I salute you sir!

[@edavidbruce]

The Yu-Gi-Oh! world is crazy enough for you to ignore that Hassleberry replaced one of his bones with fossilised dinosaur bones, giving him “Dino DNA” and immunity to mind control.

[@edavidbruce]

Also, Kaiba created functional anti-magic technology

[@princessjello]

Yes and a guy who married an ocean

[@lightning0938]

@Vinícius Deniz who was given an eye for the sole purpose of seeing a single meteor while they're in another dimension to activate some special power I don't remember but boy was the guy who gave him that really thinking ahead.

[@Calvados656]

The Yu-Gi-Oh universe: what the world would be like if the entire world economy was a Gatcha economy.

[@clayxros576]

Not really true. A Gatcha economy is basically what we have now, but with far less cute girls. No, what we want is the actual yugioh economy that is literally powered by the cards.

[@rpsyco]

Truly a Hell that we don't deserve.

[@zjzr08]

At least cards usually guarantee a "4 or 5 Star" each pack - gachas are real lotteries.

[@MrMarinus18]

Yu-Gi-Oh really is something unique. Something that has never really been seen before or since.

[@gcsgamingcommunity4087]

I just want to say that this is unironically one of the funniest, most insightful, most entertaining pieces of content you have ever produced. Nice job on the 1M subs, by the way.

[@riancarlson7924]

Kaiba is literally the Lex Luthor of his planet. Man's could literally be the saviour of humanity but he ain't got time for that shit

[@Darkfyreofthezenith]

The reality is somehow even weirder. KaibaCorp invented the InnerD reactor which is literally a perpetual motion machine. This means that basically, Kaiba is the saviour of humanity. He literally just doesn't give a shit cause he did it as an accidental byproduct of trying to kick the Pharaoh's ass.

[@shuttlecrossing1433]

The Japanese version of Dark Side of Dimensions has Kaiba's speech be much more optimistic for humanity's future. It wasn't an ego trip like the dub version. Kaiba speaks of bettering everyone with Solid Vision technology and tapping into the potential of humankind, which is also entirely consistent with his character in the sub. He's definitely still an egomaniac, but he's a benevolent-leaning egomaniac.

[@ragnarockerbunny]

@@shuttlecrossing1433 Kaiba has lots of altruistic goals, his time as an orphan instills in him that he must make a better world and Mokuba and Yugi always seem to draw out the best in him. That said, oh no, Kaiba's hate boner for Atem and Yugi is so incredibly erect he absolutely would solve the energy crisis if it meant he'd have a way to finally beat that dead king in a game of cards, truly, no one holds a tighter grudge than Seto Kaiba, no one on earth is as petty as Seto Kaiba and he is entirely unapologetic.

[@House_Of_Champs]

I got into yugioh from the anime debuting on TV, so it blew my mind when I got my mind on the OG manga and saw how dark it was. My parents 100% wouldnt have let me get into yu-gi-oh if they knew the origin.

[@pritoss5890]

In the ending of "dark side of dimension" Kaiba just straight up made a dimensional teleporter to see Atem again. Good flex.

[@VirusZero0140]

"Kaiba, mostly driven by the desire to win a card game against one guy" Couldn't have said it any better LOL

[@ArcDragoon]

So, let's talk about the economic repercussions of Kaiba. I would argue that Kaiba and his extreme spending actually funded the economy of the world. And that the class inequality of 5Ds didn't happen until after his death, when eventually the greed of the analog characters of our real world society were able to do something. Kaiba may have been Jeff Bezos, but he was Jeff Bezos that spent money and paid more than fair wages. You don't just get an R&D department like that who eventually develop quantum computing without paying the moolah.

[@Lightspeeds]

Headcanon accepted.

[@weberman173]

i mean, at least in the dub its implied that Kaiba is still alive during 5Ds(together with Aester phoneix and one of the truesdales) the only one that was "confirmed" dead in the 5Ds anime was in the sub Pegasus(as there was a Pegasus J crowford Memorial foundation)

[@samuelaviles824]

So KaibaCorp pre-5Ds is pretty much the Dengist hypothetical success story (revolving around card games) lmao noice

[@ArcDragoon]

@@samuelaviles824 Yes, the ironic part is that once the question about anything but a children's card game is answered, life can be better. Kaiba basically answers a lot of the world's problems just so he can play a children's card game. There is nothing noble about it, but like how the anime shows it in the filler arc against his father, Kaiba took the company away from arms manufacturing and into a company about a children's card game. The problem is that Kaiba isn't immortal, and could not foresee that his technology would run into the problem that 5D's does, nor would he be there to stop the eventual corruption of Kaiba Corp.

[@barongeoffrey75]

@@ArcDragoon it reminds me of the MCU's Iron man with beginning Tony stark like Kaiba's father and post-liberation Seto Kaiba.