Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, known in Japan as 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! GX follows the exploits of Judai Yuki (Jaden Yuki in the American version) and his companions as he attends Duel Academy. It was later dubbed in English by 4Kids Entertainment and a manga spinoff was created by Naoyuki Kageyama.

Plot

Taking place ten years after the events of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX follows a young boy named Jaden Yuki (Judai Yuki in the Japanese version) who attends Duel Academy, a special institute founded by Seto Kaiba which teaches young duelists all about the game of Duel Monsters. Using his Elemental Hero deck and a Winged Kuriboh card given to him by Yugi Mutou, Jaden makes various new friends and rivals and takes on many challenges in his quest to become the next King of Games.

Production

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is produced by Nihon Ad Systems, Inc., and directed by Hatsuki Tsuji. Scripts are prepared by an alternating lineup of writersâ€"Shin Yoshida, Jun Maekawa, Akemi Omode, Yasuyuki Suzukiâ€"with music arrangements by Yutaka Minobe. Takuya Hiramitsu is in charge of sound direction, supervised by YÅ«ji Mitsuya. Character and monster designs are overseen by Kenichi Hara, while Duel layout is overseen by Masahiro Hikokubo. 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 6 October 2004 and 26 March 2008, and was followed by Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.

It was subsequently licensed by 4Kids Entertainment and adapted into English, 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 sound effects, 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. Also any written language text, either Japanese or English is erased or replaced with unreadable content. These edits are also used in various localizations of the show in countries outside of Asia where 4Kids had distribution rights.

Dubbed episodes were uploaded onto 4Kids' YouTube page until 29 March 2011, when Nihon Ad Systems and TV Tokyo sued 4Kids and terminated the licensing agreement for the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. 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.

Music

Japanese

Opening themes

1. "Fine Weather Hallelujah" (快晴・上昇・ハレルーヤ, Kaisei Josho Harerûya) by Jindou (Episodes 1-33)
2. "99%" by BOWL (Episodes 34-104)
3. "Teardrop" (ティアドロップ, Tiadoroppu) by BOWL (Episodes 105-156)
4. "Precious Time, Glory Days" by Psychic Lover (Episodes 157-180)

Ending themes

1. "Genkai Battle" (限界バトル, Genkai Batoru) by JAM Project (Episodes 1-33)
2. "Wake up your Heart" by KENN (Episodes 34-104)
3. "The Sun" (太陽, Taiyou) by Bite the Lung (Episodes 105-156)
4. "Endless Dream" by Kitada Nihiroshi (Episodes 157-180)

English

1. "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. The chapters have been collected and published in nine tankōbon volumes by Shueisha starting on November 2, 2006. 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. 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. A one-shot of the GX manga was released on June 21, 2014 in the August issue of V-Jump. The one-shot was written and illustrated by Naoyuki Kageyama. An English version of this chapter was released on December 29, 2014 by Weekly Shonen Jump.

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. 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.

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.

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! GX (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia