Manga or Anime, Which to start with?

Rob said:
The manga is the true story and characters that the creator envisioned. It is the holy bible of Yugioh. It answers everything while watching its butchered anime adaptations will leave you asking questions because important story scenes are left out and they changed the characters. Everything that came after the manga started (whether its the card game, video game, or spinoff anime) takes at least 1 thing from the manga. The best way to read the Yugioh manga

In regards to the anime, when Shueisha decided to make an anime adaptation of Yugioh for 1998, they decided to make it a multimedia series with a card game by Bandai releasing on the same day as the anime with video games following. This is what hurt Yugioh as an anime adaptation. Yugioh is a story series about games. Yugioh means Game King. Not Card Game King. They were trying to sell a card game by forcing it into the anime. Anime has greater power and visibility than manga. What is shown in the anime will basically be set in stone and spread throughout history. So if you tell a lie in the anime, it will be seen as truth by people who haven't read the source manga. Instead of accurately adapting the manga, the Toei staff and NAS/Gallop staff thought they could tell a better story than the creator. They changed so much things that there are 3 different canons of the original series.

Takahashi manga canon: Yugioh manga > Transcend Game > The Dark Side of Dimensions (Note: Yugioh R manga was made by Akira Itou, not by Takahashi)

Toei canon: Yugioh > Yugioh movie

NAS/Gallop: Duel Monsters and following spinoffs

Even though Duel Monsters starts on chapter 60 of the manga, it is by a different studio who is pushing the Konami card game (Toei pushed the Bandai card game). Its a reboot so it disconnects from the Toei Yugioh anime and has to reintroduce characters that appeared in it quickly.

Also, because the anime aired at 6 PM and 7:30/6:30 PM, there's censorship/altered scenes (+ chapters not adapted) because the manga content was too dark for TV at that time of day. Yugioh needs to air at midnight for the older audience so it wont be censored. Its not even hard to target two different audiences with the current stuff for the younger audience and the faithful adaptation for the mature folk after midnight.

Yugioh never had a chance for a faithful adaptation and with the card game taking over for so long that its part of society, there may never be a chance. The last chance would be the 30th manga anniversary after they didn't do anything for the 25th anniversary in 2021.

Rob said:
@Biisoo You're welcome. Not sure if you started reading or watching it yet, but if you (or anyone else) haven't: If you played the real life card game (Konami because I doubt you played the Bandai game) before, do not compare it to the card game in the manga. You will ruin your experience because as I've seen for the longest someone complains about the rules. The manga came first. The card game and rules in the manga are the original rules. Bandai and Konami are altered versions of the rules. You have to view the series from a Japanese perspective. There was no real life card until 1998 and 1999. The card game in the manga appears in 1996, 1997, etc.. Japanese viewers just enjoyed the card game in the manga because they had nothing to compare it to. Like I said before, Yugioh is a story series. The story gameplay is why the card game is amazing in the manga. Trying to be realistic and strict in fiction hurts the card game, especially when the series wasn't made by the creator to sell cards. When you watch the anime after reading the manga, thats when the comparisons begin because you will notice what was altered. I know I called the anime butchered before, but both series have great music and voice acting (assuming you are going to watch in Japanese). The Series 1 Toei series (movie included) is on the internet if you know where to look. Its also on YouTube.

Lastly, I should note that the only uncensored/unaltered version of the manga is the original Japanese volume version from the 90's to 2004. Japan got sensitive in the 2010's with the bunkoban rerelease. I'm sure you know Yugioh started as a horror series. They made slight changes to Yami Yugi's face to make him less scary, for example. The English manga version has some censorship. The English translations are questionable and they change the chapter/volume titles, which are important. They use the English dub terms like "Duel Monsters" (This started in the Toei anime in Japan) instead of "Magic & Wizards / M&W" (They originally used it, but changed it in the rerelease). They use the English dub name for one character in the manga, but use the Japanese names for the other characters. The English manga also can't escape the card game. They use the English dub/Konami English names of the cards. They put the altered Konami effects on the cards even though the manga is using its manga effects, which causes confusion. You can always look up the uncensored scenes anyway. That's about it. You are up to date for the most part. Enjoy.