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First things first: Before this, I had absolutely zero exposure to this work or the franchise. I've neither watched the anime (yes, not even as a child), nor collected the trading cards, nor had anything else to do with it. So there's no nostalgia factor here; I'm approaching this series completely neutrally, experiencing it for the first time, knowing it only from hearsay.

Well, how should I put it… The manga hasn't really convinced me. In other words, it hasn't met my expectations at all up to this point. However, I'm not saying the manga or the series is outright "bad" - no, in fact, I ... think it has some genuinely cool and positive aspects (for example, the art style, paneling, smooth reading flow, and some genuinely awesome monster designs) - but Yu-Gi-Oh! just has several problems that left me cold, to the point that I haven't continued reading the manga in weeks.

The most obvious issue, in my opinion, is the very first arc, the first roughly 60 chapters. This arc is episodic, lacking a clear structure, with no visible common thread. Funnily enough, the card game isn't even the main focus here; there are only two duels in this entire arc - the rest consists of other, rather trivial games.

And that's precisely the problem: This arc feels incredibly unnecessary for the manga's subsequent development, almost like an extended filler. My impression was that the mangaka didn't initially know where he wanted his story to go, resorting instead to an episodic and, unfortunately, somewhat boring structure. In my view, this was a mistake (and no, I usually have no problem enjoying episodic anime or manga). Interestingly enough, I wasn't the only one feeling this way, since the animation studio responsible for the anime adaptation skipped the first arc entirely. While many manga fans dislike this decision, I actually support it. Perhaps they also omitted it because Yami Yugi was admittedly quite brutal and physically harmful toward people in the early chapters - but that doesn't change the validity of my earlier points.

The second major issue for me is the character cast as of chapter 119. I find it incredibly weak and poorly executed:

Yugi and Yami Yugi each seem to have only one or two characteristic traits, which they continuously exhibit. There's absolutely no depth - even by Shonen standards, it's excessively shallow - and I doubt it'll improve much. After over 100 chapters, there's barely any character development, and beyond their cool designs, these two characters offer me nothing... really, absolutely nothing.

Female characters are practically nonexistent, and it feels like Anzu only exists to slightly increase the female representation in this series. Yet even she remains flat, boring, monotonous, and exhibits only a single character trait. Again, by Shonen standards, this is utterly insufficient.

The only characters showing any hint of "character development" up to chapter 119 are Katsuya and Hiroto - but their development, which took its place at chapter 1 (!), makes absolutely no sense. I just can't understand how these two bullies, who previously tormented Yugi, suddenly became friendly people merely because Yugi rescued them once. Either I'm being too harsh, or this rushed and senseless development really is that bad. And again: apart from this, they remain incredibly flat, dull, and uninspiring.

Seto Kaiba is seemingly the only character I find somewhat interesting and cool. However, having just one decent character in a broader cast after over 100 chapters is terribly weak and insufficient for me.

The second arc, where I'm currently at, is decent - but nothing more. Initially, I thought it could easily rival Naruto's Chunin Exams, given the similar concept—but no, Yu-Gi-Oh! unfortunately can't even come close to that level.

The duels themselves are cool and occasionally really exciting, but this excitement quickly vanishes once you realize that Yugi has somehow won every single duel so far. The outcome becomes predictable after a while, making future duels involving Yami Yugi entirely boring. I mean, we're talking about a card game here… is it really that difficult to let the protagonist lose just once!? These aren't real, physical fights, after all.

The card game itself is okay so far, but nowhere near as spectacular as the community describes and praises it to be. This aspect hasn't really convinced me either. The only plus, as mentioned earlier, is the cool monster designs.

I'm putting the manga on pause for now and will only continue reading when I genuinely feel like it. However, whether that time will ever actually come - I seriously doubt it.