Yu-Gi-Oh tells the story of Yugi Mutou, a shy and kind-hearted card game expert who has a fragment of a millennium puzzle. The said fragment that he wears on his neck contains the spirit of a mysterious 5000-year-old pharaoh. This Pharaoh literally overcomes the protagonist’s body in times of stress or battle.
Yugi and his friends Joey Wheeler, a bully who became Yugi’s best friend, Tea Gardner, the groups ‘cheerleader’ and Tristan Taylor, another bully that Yugi won over with his everybody-should-have-friends attitude, help him on his quest to crack the Millenium puzzles and learn about the unknown Pharaoh’s past.
A recurring theme in the story is the rivals-turned-allies scenario. Yugi’s earliest main rival is Seto Kaiba, a teenage game company executive who used to scoff at the idea of the Millennium puzzles. Another character is Ryo Bakura, another millennium piece holder with a dark-half. The real antagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh series is the sinister Marik, a former tombs keeper with a thirst for the Pharaoh’s power.
The anime, which began airing on 2000 on TV Tokyo and a year later in the US, as well as the franchise, enjoyed a good reception. Nowadays, the collectible card game is played by people from all over the world.
