Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX

Yu-Gi-Oh! (Duel Monsters) GX
Screenshot of the logo from the english dub.
遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズGX (Yū-Gi-ō Dyueru Monsutāzu Jī Ekkusu)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy
Anime television series
Directed by	Hatsuki Tsuji
Produced by	Nihon Ad Systems
Written by	Shin Yoshida, Jun Maekawa, Akemi Omode, Yasuyuki Suzuki
Music by	Yutaka Minobe
Studio	Studio Gallop
Licensed by	NA 4Kids Entertainment (2005-2012) Konami (2012-present)
Network	TV Tokyo (2004-2008)
English network	AU Network Ten (2006-2012) Nickelodeon Cartoon Network CA YTV IE RTÉ Two NZ TV2 UK CITV (2005-2008) Nicktoons (2006-2011) Kix! (2013) US Cartoon Network (2005-2008) 4Kids TV (2007-2008) The CW4Kids (2008)
Original run	October 6, 2004 – March 26, 2008
Episodes	180
Manga
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Written by	Naoyuki Kageyama
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	V-Jump
English magazine	NA Shonen Jump
Original run	December 17, 2005 – March 19, 2011
Volumes	9

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズGX, Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu Jī Ekkusu, lit. "Game King Duel Monsters GX") is an anime spin-off and sequel of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. It aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008, and was succeeded by Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX follows the exploits of Judai Yuki (or Jaden Yuki in the American version) and his companions as he attends Duel Academia. It was later dubbed in English by 4Kids Entertainment and a manga spinoff was created by Naoyuki Kageyama each under the name Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (遊☆戯☆王ジーエックス, Yūgiō Jī Ekkusu, lit. "Game King GX").

Plot

Ten years after Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX follows a young boy named Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki in the English dub) who, along with his friends, attends Duel Academia (Duel Academy in the English dub), a special institute founded by Seto Kaiba, in the hopes of becoming the next King of Games. Using his Elemental Hero deck and a Winged Kuriboh given to him by Yugi Mutou, Judai faces various challenges against other students, teachers and other mysterious beings.

For the first two years at Duel Academia, the main cast faces major threats including the Seven Stars Asssasins (Shadow Riders in the English dub), who intend to revive the Three Phantom Beasts (Sacred Beasts in the English dub) by creating a strong dueling presence on the island and obtaining the Seven Spirit Keys. They are held by Judai Yuki, Ryo Marufuji, Asuka Tenjouin, Daichi Misawa, Jun Manjoume, Professor Cronos de Midici and Daitokuji-sensei (Zane Truesdale, Alexis Rhodes, Bastion Misawa, Chazz Princeton, Dr. Vellian Crowler and Lyman Banner in the English dub^[1]), as well as the Society of Light, which intends to destroy all life with the mind control satellite of Misgarth (they want to enslave humanity in the English dub^[2]). During the third year, Duel Academia is transported to another world–a desert plane with three suns and resident Duel Monster spirits–right into the hands of the Martin Empire.^[3] Upon returning home, Judai and a select group of his partners dive into the rift left in their escape to recover their missing companion, Johan Anderson (Jesse Anderson in the English dub), and embark through second and third worlds called Dark World. Judai and friends meet up with an underground group that intends to fight the Dark World Order. During the duel that was Judai vs Brron: Mad King of Dark World, Jun, Hassleberry, Asuka, Ojama Green, Ojama Black, and Atticus are killed (in the english dub they are "sent to the stars"). After Judai wins, he feels completely alone, and the spirit of the Supreme King takes over Judai's body. Jim and Austin die trying to bring Judai back to his normal self. Judai overcomes his fear of the dark power that controlled him. During those very dark times, they find themselves face to face with the vindictive Yubel. When Judai realizes the connection between Yubel and his past self, he uses Super Fusion (Super Polymerization in the English dub) to fuse his soul with Yubel's, giving him certain powers and setting his friends free.

In their final adventure, Judai and his friends deal with the mysterious Mr. T or Trueman as he calls himself, a dark agent who copies the identity of his defeated opponents and seemingly wipes out their existence with them, trapping them in a nightmarish realm where they are mentally tortured by their personal failings. When a solar eclipse draws near, Mr. T is revealed to be working for the real mastermind behind the vicious plot around the entire season - the former Seven Stars Assasin, Darkness (Nightshroud in the English dub), using Yusuke Fujiwara as an avatar. Judai and Johan form a tag team to defeat Fujiwara and later Darkness himself in order to save the rest of the humanity from his World. After Judai graduates, he is sent back in time in order to have an opportunity to duel with a younger Yugi Mutou.

Characters

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX sports many different characters. The principal cast is composed of the series' hero Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki), the passionate Asuka Tenjoin (Alexis Rhodes) and her brother Fubuki Tenjoin (Atticus), the easily discouraged but determined Sho Marufuji (Syrus Truesdale), elitist Jun Manjome (Chazz Princeton), the analytic Daichi Misawa (Bastion Misawa), the strong-willed Tyranno Kenzan (Tyranno Hassleberry), and the love-struck Rei Saotome (Blair Flannigan). Supporting characters often have connections to the educative or professional dueling worlds, and include Obelisk Blue professor Chronos de Medici (Vellian Crowler), duelist-turned-Industrial Illusions designer Hayato Maeda (Chumley Huffington), and professional duelists Ryo Marufuji (Zane Truesdale) and Edo Phoenix (Aster Phoenix). A group of foreign duelist champions, consisting of Johan Andersen (Jesse Anderson), Austin O'Brien (Axel Brodie), Amon Garam (Adrian Gecko) and Jim Crocodile Cook, along with the new professor, Cobra (Professor Thelonius Viper), would also find a place in Duel Academy's student body in the third year. In the fourth season a mysterious student named Yusuke Fujiwara appeared at the Duel Academy. The vast majority of said characters are either friends, rivals or enemies of Judai Yuki, who seems to attract both friendship and trouble.

Antagonists of the series range from elderly Kagemaru and the enslaved Seven Stars Assasins (Shadow Riders), the manipulative Takuma Saio (Sartorius), the deranged Duel Monster Spirit Yubel and the terrifying Darkness (Nightshroud).

Production

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX is produced by Nihon Ad Systems, Inc., and directed by Hatsuki Tsuji.^[4] Scripts are prepared by an alternating lineup of writers–Shin Yoshida, Jun Maekawa, Akemi Omode, Yasuyuki Suzuki–with music arrangements by Yutaka Minobe.^[4] Takuya Hiramitsu is in charge of sound direction, supervised by Yūji Mitsuya. Character and monster designs are overseen by Kenichi Hara, while Duel layout is overseen by Masahiro Hikokubo.^[4]

The "GX" in the series' title is short for the term "Generation neXt". "GENEX" was conceived as the series' original title, as can be evidenced in early promotional artwork. It also refers to the GX tournament that takes place between episodes 84 and 104.

The program is divided into episodes classified as "turns". The title sequence and closing credits are accompanied by lyrics varying over the course of the series, with the former immediately followed by an individual episode's number and title. Eyecatches begin and end commercial breaks halfway through each episode; in the first season, there were two eyecatches per episode, usually showcasing the opponents and their key monsters for a given episode while in later seasons, a single eyecatch appears with only the duelists. After the credits, a preview of the next episode, narrated most frequently by KENN and Masami Suzuki, is made, followed by a brief "Today's Strongest Card" segment.

Media

Anime

The 180-episode series was produced by Studio Gallop and aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 6, 2004 and March 26, 2008, and was followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.^[5]

It was subsequently licensed by 4Kids Entertainment and adapted into English with the title Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, picked up by Cartoon Network and 4Kids TV in North America, where it is also distributed by Warner Bros. Television Animation. Like previous 4Kids adaptations, several changes were made from the original Japanese version, including the names and personalities of characters, the soundtrack, the appearance of visuals such as Life Point counters, and the appearance of cards. The story and some of the visuals are also edited to remove references to death, blood, violence and religion in order to make the series suitable for a younger audience.^[6] These edits are also used in various localizations of the show in countries outside of Asia where 4Kids had distribution rights.

Dubbed episodes were recently uploaded onto 4Kids' YouTube page until March 29, 2011, when Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo sued 4Kids and terminated the licensing agreement for the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.^[7] The fourth season has not been dubbed, as it was replaced by the North American airing of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's in September 2008.

The Japanese version uses eight pieces of theme music, four opening themes and four ending themes. For episodes 1-33, the opening theme is "Fine Weather Hallelujah" (快晴・上昇・ハレルーヤ, Kaisei Josho Hareruya) by Jindou, while the ending theme is "Genkai Battle" (限界バトル, Genkai Batoru) by JAM Project. For episodes 34-104, the opening theme is "99%" by BOWL while the ending theme is "Wake up your Heart" by KENN. For episodes 105-156, the opening theme is "Teardrop" (ティアドロップ, Tiadoroppu) by BOWL while the ending theme is "The Sun" (太陽, Taiyou) by Bite the Lung. For episode 157-180, the opening theme is "Precious Time, Glory Days" by Psychic Lover while the ending theme is "Endless Dream" by Kitada Nihiroshi. In the English version, the opening theme is "Get Your Game On" by Alex Walker, Jake Siegler and Matthew Ordek.

Manga

A manga spin-off of the series supervised by Kazuki Takahashi and written and illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama began serialization in V-Jump on December 17, 2005.^[8] The chapters have been collected and published in nine tankōbon volumes by Shueisha starting on February 8, 2007. The manga is licensed for English language release by Viz Media, which serialized the first 37 chapters in its Shonen Jump manga anthology. The remaining chapters were published straight to graphic novel, beginning with volume 5. The plot of the manga is more of a continuation to the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series with Shadow Games and the Millennium Items playing a major role within the story.^[9][10] There are also new monsters and changes to some of the characters' personalities. Unlike the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, all the names used in the English version of the manga are taken from the dubbed anime.

Video games

Several video games based on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX have been developed and published by Konami.

Two games were released for Game Boy Advance; Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Aim to be Duel king! and Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters Expert 2006.

Five games have been released for Nintendo DS; Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Nightmare Troubadour, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Spirit Summoner, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters World Championship 2007 and Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008. A fourth title, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Card Almanac, is not actually a game, but a catalog of cards up to 2007.

The Tag Force series has appeared on the PlayStation Portable, which adds the ability to form tag team duels, with the first three games in the series being based on the GX series (subsequent games are based on Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's). The titles are Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 2 and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force 3. The first game was also ported to PlayStation 2 as Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Tag Force Evolution. So far, Tag Force 3 has not been released in North America. It was however, released in Europe, and its follow up, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 4, has been released in all regions including North America.

Magazine

In 2007 Eaglemoss productions signed a deal to release a magazine based upon the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX franchise named Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Ultimate Guide.^[11][12] This series of issues (Priced as 99p for Issue 1, £1.99 for Issues 2 to 60 and £4.99 for the Mini Monsters Special Issue) ran from 2007 to 2009 and totalled 61 issues. Each fortnight a collectable would be included in the form a medal (Academy character or duel monster), a Triang (2x shiny or 1x Holographic) or a miniature monster which would stand on its own platform. In Issue 2 a tin was provided to keep medals and triangs in, along with a further 2 collectable file folders to hold the comics in later issues.

Issues

Parodies

The artist Inu Mayuge (犬 マユゲ, Dog Brows) parodied Yu-Gi-Oh! GX in the comic De-I-Ko! GX (犬☆眉☆毛DE-I-KO! GX). The parody was posted in the June 25, 2009 V-Jump.^[13]

References

External links

• TV Tokyo Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX page (Japanese)
• NASinc. (Japanese)
• 4Kids and Upper Deck Entertainment Yu-Gi-Oh! GX page
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia