Reading early Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is fun, because I get to see how it changed from the original focus of Yugi getting revenge on bullies through various Shadow Games to the card-battling manga it is today. The first 3-in-1 introduced the basic cast and gave Yugi his Shadow Game abilities powered by ancient Egyptian mystical items. This 3-in-1 has lots more Shadow Games, one in particular that will go on to be the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.

One of my favorite things about early Yu-Gi-Oh! are the ridiculously dangerous games the characters play. I mean, this is a manga for kids, right? So it’s probably not a good idea to put certain ideas in their heads. Ideas like having a fistfight while holding a knife in your teeth! This actually happens in the manga! Kids! Don’t do this! Seriously!

After the insane knife antics, the story takes another wacky twist, and Yugi and crew find themselves fighting for their lives in an crazy amusement park run by Kaiba and his ratty little brother, Mokuba. This whole arc is a mind-blower as the kids face many dangers including fighting trained assassins in a lethal game of laser tag. One of the assassins bears a slight resemblance to Japan’s most famous manga assassin. After that, they’re on a scary ride where if you react to the fear, you’ll be electrocuted! And there’s a poop joke thrown in there that has one of the most realistic drawn doo-doos I’ve ever seen in a manga. You can practically smell it!

At the end of this arc, Kaiba challenges Yugi to a game of Duel Monsters! This is clearly where the card game came from, and it’s obvious why—this duel is amazing! They’ve played the game one time before in an earlier volume, but it’s not quite as well thought out as it is here, nor as exciting. It makes me wonder, if they were seeing what kind of response they’d get by putting it in the manga again to decide if they were going to make the card game in real life. From what I understand, tons of Japanese kids wrote in when they saw the game in the manga. I think if I was a little kid, I might have written a letter or two myself!

After all the amusement-park madness, the manga returns to its usual various gaming focus. One story that stands out is when Yugi goes to an amusement park where the “Card Bomber” has planted an explosive. And he’s going to blow up the Ferris Wheel unless someone can beat him at a game of cards. Luckily for the detective on the case, there just happens to be a guy really good a card games nearby! And the next big Shadow Game involves an ancient Chinese card game all about dragons! Fueling my theory that Takahashi Sensei loves dragons!

And as usual, the volume comes packed with all kinds of games you can play with your friends. It’s one of neatest extras I’ve seen in manga, and the games actually look pretty fun. And they seem to be getting more complicated! One game has a six page game board and the other has four pages of rules! Like I said at the top, this manga is especially fun for “manga historians” like myself who are curious to see how the manga was before the cards. But even if that doesn't appeal to you, it’s still a fun read with lots of cool games, funny moments and great art.

You can ponder the early days before the cards right here! 

by Urian Brown