Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light: All the Japanese with Their Yen Pay for the Additional Footage

Looking back, it's kind of a miracle that the late Kazuo "Kazuki" Takahashi wound up being not just a successful mangaka, but created one of the most enduring trading card games of all time. His first manga one-shot was published back in 1981, he wouldn't have a serialized manga until he was picked to adapt the TV anime Go-Q-Choji Ikkiman in 1986, and his first few series in Weekly Shonen Jump in the 90s were all (by his own admission) "total flops". In fact, even when Takahashi first debuted Yu-Gi-Oh!/The King of Games! in late 1996 it, too, was also on the verge of cancellation after just over a year in; according to mangaka Yasuaki Kita, it was down to either his Makuhari or Yu-Gi-Oh!, & Makuhari lost. Luckily, there was reader interest in a card game Takahashi had featured on two occasions during this early run, so it was decided that Takahashi would move focus solely to that game for the manga moving forward... and the rest is history. To be fair, Toei Animation's "Season 0" TV anime was also likely already in pre-production by the time the manga was on the verge of cancellation, so that may have played a factor in the manga being given a lifeline, too.

Regardless, Yu-Gi-Oh! would go on to run until early 2004 for 343 chapters across 38 volumes (making it Jump's 20th longest manga of all time), and that card game Takahashi showcased early on (first named Magic & Wizards, later renamed Duel Monsters) would go on to inspire the real life Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game in 1999 (2002 abroad), which in 2009 was named the top selling TCG in the world & is still going strong to this day. In fact, after the finale of the second YGO! anime produced in 2004 (the one that was done by Studio Gallop & did see international release), the franchise has continued on telling original stories, all with the direct intent to promote the TCG & the various new rules, gimmicks, & cards that each new series introduces; currently the franchise is on its seventh such spin-off (& ninth TV anime, overall), 2022's Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!. Also, it can't be stated just how instantly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was when 4Kids debuted its localized adaptation on Kids' WB on September 29, 2001, becoming such a smash hit that it was decided to create a theatrical anime... made for North America first.

In July of 2003 Warner Bros. announced that it got distribution rights for a movie based on Yu-Gi-Oh!, to follow up the success the first three Pokémon movies had previously been, & on August 13, 2004 Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie debuted in American theaters, earning over $9.4 million in its first weekend alone (though that only got it 4th place in the box office), before eventually earning a total of ~$29.2 million worldwide; until Dragon Ball Super: Broly in 2018, this was the third-highest grossing anime film in North America (with over $19.7 million). However, the movie allegedly cost ~$20 million to produce, so it was considered a box office bomb, and the critical reception wasn't any better, quickly becoming one of the worst received animated films of all time in North America. Afterwards, the film saw release in Japan, now renamed Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Hikari no Pyramid/Pyramid of Light (the subtitle is technically in the English version too, but is almost never actually referred to when the title is stated), and though English Wikipedia cites a theatrical release on November 3, 2004, Japanese Wikipedia says that such a screening was done only once via invite. Instead, Pyramid of Light was widely shown in Japan as a TV special on January 2, 2005 (by this point Yu-Gi-Oh! GX was airing in Japan), and to help make the film fit within the two-hour time slot it was given (including commercials) an additional 13 minutes of animation was produced exclusively for the Japanese version, bumping the run time up from 89 minutes to 102. Now, to be fair, this technically wasn't the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, as "Season 0" did have a movie in 1999, but that was just a half-hour production shown as part of a triple-feature, alongside the original Digimon Adventure movie & the 10th Dr. Slump movie.

While Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie has since seen a handful of re-releases in its original English form, even getting a two-night remastered theatrical release in March of 2018 by Fathom Events, the longer Pyramid of Light version has remained exclusive to Japan, even though the OG Duel Monsters anime has long since been made officially available with English subtitles via streaming. So, since I'm on a bit of a toy/game-based theatrical anime kick after that Beyblade "Double Feature", let's lay down some monster, spell, & trap cards before ending our turns & check out this now infamous entry in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. While this review will primarily be about its lesser known extended Japanese form, I'll also go over the more widely known original English form to some extent later on, mainly for comparison's sake.

"Ore no Turn! DRAW!!" (Sorry, but I couldn't help myself)

Honestly a little amazed this image is in the English version.

Kaiba Corporation's Duel Monsters Battle City tournament has come to an end with Yugi Muto becoming champion (Duel King), and throughout all of the battles has come into possession of the three legendary "God Cards": The Heavenly Dragon of Osiris (Slifer the Sky Dragon), The Giant God Solider of Obelisk (Obelisk the Tormentor), & The Winged Dragon of Ra. Naturally, this involved Yugi defeating his greatest rival (& tournament head) Seto Kaiba, with the power of the God Cards at that, and Kaiba can't accept this defeat. Unable to think of any other way to surpass the power of the God Cards, Kaiba heads off to see Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillon Pegasus), creator of Duel Monsters. Pegasus admits that there is a card he made that can defeat the God Cards, but will only give it to Kaiba if he can win a duel... which Kaiba does. In turn, Kaiba takes two cards from Pegasus, not knowing that one of those cards was actually covertly added to Pegasus' possession without anyone knowing by a mysterious figure overnight. Said figure is actually Anubis, the God of Death, which The Pharaoh whose soul co-inhabits Yugi's body (after Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle) had once sealed away long ago. However, a recent archaeological dig has accidentally released the seal on Anubis, who now wants revenge... and it all begins when Kaiba uses one of the cards he obtained, the Pyramid of Light, during a duel with The Pharaoh "Yugi" ("Yami/Dark Yugi", to fans), which not only removes the God Cards from play but also sucks in the souls of Yugi & two of his friends, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) & Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor), into an Escher-style soul labyrinth. Not only that, but the Pyramid of Light turns the duel into a Shadow Game, so all damage Kaiba & The Pharaoh take is physically felt by them, i.e. losing equals death, while the life force taken from them is slowly given to the mummy of Anubis, which can result in his revival.

Pyramid of Light does have a bit of a mixed reception, even from fans of Yu-Gi-Oh!, but that's not to say that there aren't some really good aspects of it. First, I really like how it actually brings up the idea that The Pharaoh (I am not using his real name, as this story takes place before that gets revealed, & most fans don't even refer to him by it, even after all this time) is technically a representation of darkness, which was an element of Yu-Gi-Oh! that was mostly discarded once Duel Monsters became the focus of the story; even the final story arc, which focused on revealing The Pharaoh's past, still downplayed it. Therefore, having Anubis refer to him as the "Dark Pharaoh" & "King of Shadows", while Kaiba is intended to be his "King of Light", and decry that he will bring the "Light of Destruction" upon the world after defeating The Pharaoh is a very cool callback to the series' origins, which was nice to see; it makes sense that "Dark Yugi" would be fighting against the "evil" of the light. I also really enjoyed the short Pegasus vs. Kaiba duel early on, as it utilized the giant game field that duels in the Duelist Kingdom Arc were played on, with Kaiba even pointing out how old fashioned it was, since the Battle City Arc introduced the duel discs that simply strapped onto players arms & would become the standard for the entire franchise from then on out. The story also does take a decent amount of time to set everything up, with Yugi himself not even really taking center stage until about a half hour in, which gives Kaiba & even Pegasus time to shine on their own.

I'd say "Summoning Monsters via Souls of the Dead" is against
the rules, but I bet that's since been made legal via one of the later anime.

However, to lay the cards on the table (ha!), this movie/TV special really isn't anything more than "just fine", overall, and that's simply because all it really winds up being is an extended Yugi vs. Kaiba duel, in the grand scheme of things. Now, don't get me wrong, Yugi (both personas) & Kaiba are great characters & their duels are always interesting to watch, but the main focus of this entire story is really just Kaiba wanting to duel "Yami Yugi" again after his defeat in the Battle City semi-finals, only now he unwillingly turns it into a Shadow Game once he activates the Pyramid of Light card. This, then, introduces the subplot of Yugi, Jonouchi, & Honda (& later their friend Anzu Masaki [Téa Gardner]) having to make their way through the Pyramid's soul labyrinth in order to free themselves from captivity (& weaken Anubis' power, in turn)... which itself is also a rehash, since it's pretty much just like when Yugi & his friends had to find their way through the Millennium Puzzle's Escher-style soul labyrinth in order to reach the world of The Pharaoh's memories for the final story arc of the main story; remember, by the time this aired in Japan both the manga & the Duel Monsters anime had already done that part. Because these are the primary two plots going on for the majority of the time, & the duel itself takes the lion's share of it, Anubis himself really doesn't play much of a direct role until the very end, which in turn weakens his overall relevance & makes him not really feel important. In the end, Pyramid of Light feels like a rehash of already done plot points & beats, and the aspects of it that are unique or (at the very least) call back to lesser focused on aspects of the original YGO! story aren't given enough focus to detract from that.

All that being said, though, this still isn't a terrible story that's told, merely a bit redundant, and what does hold it up is some honestly solid writing, at least when you treat this as a non-canon "filler" plot. Considering its kind of back-&-forth production history (made in Japan for America first, & then later expanded on for Japan), Pyramid of Light does have a bit of a non-standard writing history, as instead of a traditional writing or "composition" credit, the Japanese version instead credits Junki Takegami & Masahiro Hikokubo for the "Original Story", with Takegami seemingly handling the actual plot that was told, while Hikokubo likely handled the same thing that he's continued to do for the franchise's various anime productions to this day, "Duel Layout" (i.e. making sure that the games played make sense & follow the established rules). As I said before, I enjoyed how Takegami put a little more focus on The Pharaoh's connection to "darkness", and while Kaiba himself seemingly hasn't learned anything from the events of Battle City (as he's still single-mindedly obsessed with beating Yugi & refuses to believe in any of the Egyptian "occult", as he calls it) he remains the lovable jerk of a nerd who literally flies around in a Blue Eyes White Dragon jet; the line where he calls out Pegasus for being obsessed with "prior glory" perfectly encapsulates Kaiba's hypocrisy. As for the two duels showcased here, both are good & make sense from a strategy & execution perspective, though there is naturally a bit of a "deus ex draw" aspect that's kind of essential for dramatic effect, especially since Yugi winds up being forced to discard 10 cards at the end of every turn (i.e. Kaiba uses a "Mill Deck"). All of this does get thrown away, though, once Anubis finally appears in person for the climax, as his own "Hieratic text" & Shadow Game mysticism allows for characters to literally just summons monsters all willy nilly, even outside the confines of the game itself; move over Kaiba, as Anubis says "Screw the Rules, I Have Ancient Egyptian Magic!".

Anzu/Téa looks more than ready to kill a mummy,
so she must be a witch. "Burn the witch!"

But where the writing itself does generally help Pyramid of Light, though, the visuals are easily the biggest turn off. Directed by character designer Hatsuki Tsuji (YGO! GX, Line-On Cardliver Kakeru, Cardfight!! Vanguard), this was technically more of a co-production between the Japanese Studio Gallop & the Korean Dong Woo Animation... and it honestly shows. Even watching the extended Japanese cut by way of an old fansub, i.e. less than ideal video quality (& an absurd amount of translation notes & unneedingly maintained Japanese), I just constantly had this feeling of "Man, this 'movie' really doesn't look any better than an episode of the Duel Monsters anime...", and even when taken as a TV special the visual quality of the entire thing just disappoints. If this was simply a multi-episode filler mini-arc within the TV series then it'd simply be nothing notable, but considering that this was a $20 million "movie" meant to initially be shown in theaters it truly befits the word "subpar", at best. Luckily, this Japanese version does include the original score made for the Duel Monsters TV anime by composer Shinkichi Mitsumune (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Familiar of Zero), which has always been outstanding & helps give everything a greater feeling of gravitas when necessary. Finally, Pyramid of Light in Japanese does also include its own unique ED theme, "Fire" by Blaze (a.k.a. Kaen), which is a heavy hard rock song that (in some ways) does clash with most of the OPs & EDs that the Duel Monsters anime had utilized (excluding "Shuffle" by Masami Okui, of course), but on its own is a very cool song, nonetheless; the lyrics have absolutely nothing in relation to Yu-Gi-Oh!, though, even thematically.

As for Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, the biggest difference would seem to be that footage that wasn't originally in this version & instead was added to the Japanese version. However, for the most part, a lot of that extra footage is really more incidental, though there is the occasional scene where characters converse more with each other during a game & the like; there's also about six eyecatches added for the commercial breaks, but that would only add up to maybe a minute or so. For example, I managed to sync up Kaiba vs. Pegasus between both versions for the fun of it, and eventually they de-synced because Pyramid of Light added some extra banter between Kaiba & Pegasus, including that excellent line where Kaiba exemplified his own hypocrisy; if anything, the extra scenes just give the Japanese version just that little bit more of extra personality. Also, most interestingly enough, the order of some scenes in the first half are switched around, so where The Movie originally split up Kaiba & Pegasus agreeing to a duel & their actual duel by showing the introduction of Yugi & his friends into the plot, Pyramid of Light in Japan actually shows all of Kaiba & Pegasus' stuff together, postponing Yugi's proper introduction until just shy of a half hour in. Again, this kind of stuff doesn't really make a major or truly notable difference in terms of the story being told, but I do think Pyramid of Light in Japanese does benefit from the additions & changes, even if only slightly.

This is why you should always clean your hands before you duel.
I swear, some people just don't have any sense of cleanliness...

In terms of the audio, the "dub's" musical score by seven different people definitely aims to make things feel more serious & mysterious, rather than the Japanese score's focus on simply adding gravitas & the like. It's absolutely a personal preference, but I think the Japanese score is stronger; the English version doesn't even have "Fire" for its ED, despite that song already being in full English! In terms of the script the overall stories are naturally the same, but The Movie does add in a bunch of snark & incidental dialog, usually in an attempt at humor, and (naturally) there is absolutely no talk of The Pharaoh being the representative of darkness & Anubis talking about the "Light of Destruction", completely removing an aspect that I honestly enjoyed. Amusingly enough, The Movie also doesn't bother to explain all of the rules when a game is being played, like how Pegasus was able to lower the level of some monsters so as to summon them they way he did, while Pyramid of Light actually does; I believe the TV series dub also did this a lot, which contributed to online jokes about how the rules don't make sense. However, the English script also has a bad habit of verbally stating what the visuals convey mere seconds later, because the writers seemingly assumed that kids aren't able to understand subtlety. Finally, The Movie also tends to include spoken lines where Pyramid of Light would be more quiet, which is amusing to see because this was made for theaters, so 4Kids was under no obligation to follow some of the more bizarre regulations that TV had at the time for kids shows, like not allowing scenes to go by without someone talking for more than a couple of seconds, for fear that kids would get instantly bored & switch channels; yes, this was an actual rule! Visually, The Movie is known for actually taking the time to have all of the Duel Monsters cards be drawn to perfectly match their real life English counterparts, right down to the alternate artwork some of them have (which is admittedly a nice touch), and naturally Pyramid of Light have them redrawn to match their Japanese counterparts, though stuff like newspaper articles & TV broadcasts are kept in English in the later version, which is funny. Even watching it in HD, though, The Movie really just looks like a much cleaner looking version of the TV series, which isn't exactly a compliment.

Both the original Japanese cast & the English cast are more than enjoyable in their own respective ways, and that applies to this movie/TV special. That being said, both of these casts are kind of iconic in their own ways, so I feel going over them in detail is a bit redundant, so let's just focus on a few. Shunsuke Kazama (a rare member of talent agency Smile-Up, f.k.a Johnny & Associates, that's not a singer) & Dan Green both deliver similar executions when it comes to Yugi, going for a meeker (but still brave, when needed) voice for "normal" Yugi & a much more confident & somewhat older voice for "Yami Yugi". Kenjiro Tsuda & Eric Stuart offer slightly different takes on Kaiba, with Tsuda being deeper voiced while Stuart goes for a slightly more grating voice, but both absolutely nail the cocky & stubborn demeanor of Yugi's ultimate rival. Jirou Jay Takasugi & Darren Dunstan are arguably the most similar pair of actors for the same character, in this case Pegasus, as both go for a bit of a pompous blowhard with a penchant for adding the word "boy" to others' names to mess with them, though Takasugi gets bonus points for almost sounding like he's trying to sing his lines, but without actually singing (if that makes any sense, which I'm sure doesn't). Finally, for the "major" roles, there are Koji Ishii & Scottie Ray as Anubis, and both are honestly kind of bland, though that perfectly befits a villain as without any real flavor as Anubis. The rest of the cast is rounded out by the likes of Hiroki Takahashi (Jonouchi), Hidehiro Kikuchi (Honda), Maki Saitou (Anzu), Junko Takeuchi (Mokuba, Kaiba's little brother), & Tadashi Miyazawa (Sugoroku Muto, Yugi's grandfather) for the Japanese cast, while Wayne Grayson (Joey), John Campbell (Tristan), Amy Birnbaum (Téa), Tara Jayne (Mokuba), & Addie Blaustein (Solomon Mutoh, Yugi's grandfather) fill out the English cast.

As I said earlier, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light isn't a bad movie/TV special, it's "just fine", but it's definitely the weakest of the three main Yu-Gi-Oh! movies. Pyramid of Light's biggest flaw is that it's a strong mix of "been there, done that" by repeating certain plot elements that were already done before in the story (Yugi vs. Kaiba is the main focus, there's a soul labyrinth, etc.) & a villain that honestly plays barely any direct role for the large majority of the run time, so by the time he finally appears in person you don't really care. In comparison, Bonds Beyond Time from 2010 actually had its villain be the focus of the main game that's played (&, of course, there's the fun in seeing three generations of YGO! leads teaming together), while The Dark Side of Dimensions from 2016 aimed to be a reunion story that shows the original cast after the events of the manga & how they've grown as people, with The Pharaoh's big return being saved for the climax. In fact, even the 1999 Toei "movie" is arguably better, and that's also a basic "Yugi vs. Kaiba" story, though at least with that one you have a different voice cast & animation studio, but still with Shingo Araki & Michi Himeno handling character designs, to help make it something unique yet still familiar. If I have to choose which version of this story is superior, then the answer is simply the Japanese Pyramid of Light TV special, as while the extra scenes don't really amount to that much in the grand scheme of things, they do still honestly help with the overall flow of the story to an extent, allowing certain moments to breathe a bit more, and while I do enjoy the English voice cast there's no doubt that the English script isn't as strong (the quipping & snark does get tiring, honestly), while the English musical score just doesn't hold up as well as the Japanese score; had The Movie at least also had "Fire" by Blaze as its ED I would have given it brownie points.

In the end, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light definitely has "earned" its notoriety and is really only recommended for hardcore fans of the franchise if they're curious, though I'd say just go with the longer Japanese version. That being said, though, if you're a hardcore fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! then you've probably already seen this, haven't you?

I end my turn.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie © 1996 Kazuki Takahashi

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Hikari no Pyramid © Kazuki Takahashi・Studio Dice/Shueisha・TV Tokyo・NAS