Instead of opening a similar thread, I'll reply to this one due for the following reasons:
1. There are too many threads in AnimeSuki dedicated to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, in general.
2. When it comes to discussion of the "first" series mostly anybody has no tact to specify what do they mean by that.
3. My review is specific to the Yu-Gi-Oh! show produced by
TOEI that 4-KIDS never bothered to license.
On-Topic
Since December 2017, I took the chance to marathon TOEI's Yu-Gi-Oh! show one episode day by day on weekdays. My reason was that I felt nostalgic after been away from this franchise in anime format for several years. However, back then I wasn't attracted to the following Yu-Gi-Oh! shows that came after the conclusion of the GX series, and to this day I still feel the same at staying away from them. Moreover, I missed the old gang of characters that I loved from the Duel Monsters series and approaching the TOEI series gave me the chance to relive my joy for those same characters.
Before starting TOEI's show, I made research on it to understand some basic knowledge:
1. The "first" season is based upon the first 59 chapters of the manga and ends with Kaiba's Death-T game defeat, whereas NAS Duel Monsters show makes a sort of rebooting/retconning in the first episode resuming Yugi vs. Kaiba epic showdown and then picking up after with the Duelist Kingdom story arc.
2. TOEI's anime is loosely based on the manga's first seven volumes due that by the time that series began airing the animation staff had roughly six months or less of source material to work with back then.
- Hence, lots of subplots and characters from the beginning of the manga were neither adapted nor touched upon in TOEI's anime.
- Explaining the reason as to why the show itself had to make use of original material and fillers for many episodes. For example, Kaiba's four game masters in this series are original characters for that anime only from what I read.
- In addition, from what I also researched the violence depicted in the first series, specially shown in the penalty games, is either tweaked or toned down a little in contrast to that of the manga material.
3. The design of the characters, particularly their color schemes, strays far away from those seen in NAS Duel Monsters series. In fact, TOEI's design for Kaiba is way too big a difference from the NAS show to name one among many examples.
4. This anime aired from April 4th to October 10th 1998 spanning the curious amount of 27 episodes.
Now, let's get on with review...
Since, watching NAS Duel Monsters, I was completely familiar with the cast, however, not only I felt nostalgia seeing again the old gang but also a breath of fresh air, that's because I acquainted myself watching the origin tale of Yuugi befriending Jounouchi and Honda unfolding in this anime.
Another bout of creativity and originality that TOEI's show offered me was that not all games were Duel Monster games, but also games improvised by Yami Yuugi or other type of puzzle games and board games that required not special powers but paying attention to tiny details, patience, use of common sense, tactics, and taking advantage of the opponent's greed and arrogance. In fact, Yami Yuugi only uses his powers to inflict penalty games on those rivals that cheat or break the rules in the shadow games he challenges them on.
About this show's foes, antagonists, and rivals, aside from Kaiba and his game masters, they're just ordinary people that have strong obsessions towards something they lust and out of control desires. Furthermore, what I notice in those foes is that they usually have very nasty personalities that make their behavior and bullying towards other characters all the more disturbing and gaining absolutely no empathy from me when Yami Yuugi inflicts upon them a penalty game. In fact, the penalty game served results in a sort of poetic justice punishment when the rival's obsession is used against him or her in deadly illusions in order to learn the lesson the very hard way.
Going episode by episode through this show I now understand the reasons why it remains unlicensed as of today, besides that it seldom features the Duel Monsters card game.
- Many episodes have subtexts and reading between line references to sex jokes and violent games like Russian roulette.
- There are quite a few episodes that contain references to occultism and witchcraft.
The few things that I disliked about TOEI's show were the character designs for either the foes and/or side characters. They were just plain, butt ugly or disturbing and weird. But, perhaps, my biggest complaint was the character of Miho Nosaka.
I thought from episode one of this show that she was uninteresting and harmless of a character, however, by the time I finished the entire series I truly despised her. If TOEI elevated her to main cast for this show, probably, was to appoint her as the poster girl. Nonetheless, her behavior feels to me stupid as well as her personality one dimensional, as she does contribute nothing to the team except for offering her friendship.
From what I researched, she's a side character in the manga appearing only twice that is the first time in volume one and the last time in volume three before the author completely dropped off the character from the story for good. Good grief, that NAS chose not to carry over Miho into the Duel Monsters show; a wise decision that I thanked them for.
Overall, I enjoyed TOEI Yu-Gi-Oh! having fun to watch again Yuugi and his friends in whatever games they faced and challenges they rose to the occasion. By the way, I felt compelled to watch this show out of nostalgia and craving to see one more time the old gang, since NAS has strayed, IMHO, from the formula and story lines first introduced in the Duel Monsters series.