A second trailer for the upcoming huge Yu-Gi-Oh 10th Anniversary cross-over movie has been leaked online. This new trailer gives us a much better idea of what the 3D film will be like, & includes lots of new footage & information about the feature. It's just so freaking cool to see Yugi, Judai, & Yusei all teaming up. Although Judai's Yubel eyes seem a bit off compared to how they look from the TV series.

Another version of this new trailer can be seen below, & after that you can check out LittleKuriboh's Abridged version of the trailer:

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The January 2010 issue of Viz Media's Shonen Jump magazine arrived at my doorstep earlier this week, & there's a lot in this issue that makes it notable. The big push is for SJ's jump in the One Piece manga, which skipped 30 volumes in order to "catch up" with where the manga is in Japan, similar to what they did with Naruto. & while they are indeed MUCH closer to the Japanese manga compared to just last month, I feel it's a bit misleading to say they're caught up with Japan. The English Naruto manga is only about 15 chapters behind the Japanese version, which is pretty good. However, the One Piece manga is more than double that, running about 35 chapters behind where Japan is right now. That's still well over half a year behind Japan. I'm hoping they'll slowly catch up a little more over time.

The other news is that two different manga titles ended in this issue of US Shonen Jump. One of course is YuYu Hakusho, the only manga in the magazine to run since issue #1 without skipping any chapters. It's also only the second title in the magazine to run from beginning to end without skipping as well, behind Akira Toriyama's very short SandLand manga during the mag's first year. Truly an honor indeedm & it's sad to see this classic reach its conclusion.

The other title was a little more surprising it wasn't seen coming. This was also the final issue to serialize the Yu-Gi-Oh GX manga. The manga will still continue on in graphic novel format, but will no longer run in the magazine. This final chapter concluded volume 4 of the manga, & we'll have to wait till volume 5 goes on sale to see more. What really sucks is that the GX manga was running really close behind the Japanese version, with only a few months separating the two. But now we'll have to wait until October 2010 for the next English chapters to come out. Ouch.

This also means that for the first time since the magazine launched 9 years ago, Shonen Jump wont be running a Yu-Gi-Oh manga in its magazine. There's also no signs that the new 5D's manga will be replacing it either. I'm actually quite surprised by this, as having the two different YGO manga in the mag has always served as a sort of advertisement for Konami's card game. They've always had lists of the cards used in each chapter at the end, & gave tips about how to use the cards in real games. Will a similar feature still exist? Or is this yet another sign of the impending doom of the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise in the US?

Beginning in the February issue, a three-month preview of the Toriko manga will be replacing the two fallen titles. I would assume that the three issues will cover the entire first volume of the graphic novel, but it doesn't quite state as much. & after that, it's pretty much a given that Bakuman will be replacing it in the May 2010 issue, but who knows for how long.

Brand new images of the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh 10th Anniversary movie have found their way online. They don't really tell us anything new about the story, besides confirming that Yami Yugi will be in on the action.

In truth it wasn't until I saw these pics of Yugi, Judai, & Yusei all standing together that I became really excited to see this film. Just seeing the three of them in the same place, standing tall together against an enemy, is enough to make this fanboy excited. Naturally I'm more excited at the opportunity to get more Judai rather than Yugi. I feel the story of Yugi has been told, & then some. But the story of Yuki Judai still remains an open book with unlimited potential for what his future holds.

I can't wait to see this, even if it'll be awhile before us international fans get it. Hopefully it'll only be a few weeks after it comes out rather than months. Check out the 10 brand new pics below:

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According to the latest issue of V-Jump magazine, the brand new Yu-Gi-Oh crossover movie will debut in Japanese theaters on January 23, 2010. It also states that the original seiyuu for Yugi & Judai will both be reprising their roles for the movie, along with Yusei's seiyuu. In addition, the animation director for the film is Takahiro Kagami, who is a fan-favorite among Yu-Gi-Oh anime fans who did many of the finest looking episodes of the Duel Monsters series.

At the same time, the official Japanese website for the movie was updated with information on the film's plot. It seems Yusei is the catalyst for setting things in motion, the story will take place in Yugi's time, & it's Judai's powers that tie it all together. Here's a translation of the story:

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For the second time in the past week, a Yu-Gi-Oh MAD based on the To Love-ru anime opening has been found online. Coincidence, or something else? At any rate, it's fun to see what Yu-Gi-Oh would be like if it were an ecchi harem series. Lord knows it's had plenty of attractive girls over its 10 year run. Which YGO girl would you choose if they were all chasing after you?

It's also interesting to see the similarities between the two vids, despite being obviously done by different artists. You can check out the newer one above, & you can see the older one again (as well as the original To Love-ru opening) below:

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According to the latest issue of V-Jump, in honor of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime 10th anniversary a brand new Yu-Gi-Oh movie will be coming to Japanese theaters in Spring 2010. Just like the previously announced anniversary OVA, "Gekijou-ban Yu-Gi-Oh! ~Chou-Yuugou! Jikuu o Koeta Kizuna~" will involve the main protagonist from all three Yu-Gi-Oh series- Yugi (DM), Judai, (GX), & Yusei (5D's).

Which begs the question, what does this mean for the Shonen Jump Super Tour OVA? Did ambitions for the OVA get so big that they decided to turn the OVA into a movie, or will we still be getting the OVA? If so, will it still be about all three main characters, or will it be a different plot now that the movie will be covering that?

As the trailer above indicates, the movie will be shown in 3D. Now I've heard many fans assume that it being in 3D means that the entire film will be done in CGI, but I really don't think that's what they meant at all. Rather it'll be still be animated in the traditional sense, & audiences will wear 3D glasses so that the images pop-out at them.

The movie will feature a brand-new villain known as Paradox, which the three heroes will have to unite in order to defeat. What's interesting is that if you look at Paradox's character page on the official Japanese movie website, his bottom half kind of looks like Kaiba. Coincidence? Maybe, hard to say yet. More details as they become available.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-09-17/yu-gi-oh-10th-anniversary-anime-to-be-film-in-2010

4Kids Entertainment, who have lately been actually pleasing die-hard anime fans by uploading Japanese raw & English subtitled episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh onto YouTube, have unfortunately been forced to take all the episodes down. Now before you grab your torches & head to 4Kids headquarters with an angry mob, this is not their fault. It turns out a very odd Japanese rights issue has surfaced because of the attention the subbed episodes have been getting (4Kids had just begun experimenting with hard & soft subbed versions of episodes that had never before been released in the US).

It seems one of the original Japanese voice actors had a problem with the Japanese episodes on YouTube, so they all had to be removed. That's all the raw episodes, all the soft-subbed episodes, & all the hard-subbed episodes (as of this writing the test hardsub version of episode 13 still works, I'm sure this is just an oversight on 4Kids' part). Now all that remains are the English dub episodes. Personally this doesn't make much sense to me. I'm sure 4Kids had all the legal rights to stream the episodes in regions they had the rights to. So how is it that because one seiyuu had a problem with it (even though the streams weren't available in Asia), all the episodes had to be removed? This seems to apply beyond Internet streams as well. DTO & even DVDs with the Japanese language seem to not be allowed anymore. All in all, 4Kids had delivered a mixture of the first 14 episodes online in subtitled format, & the first 44 raw episodes.

While this is a large & unfortunate setback, there is some good news to share as well. 4Kids Entertainment isn't allowing this to dampen their hopes of releasing uncut & original anime online. Their resident Nameless Cubicle Office Guy has officially announced that completely unedited, subtitled episodes of "Sonic X" & "Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's" are coming this Fall! Subtitled season 1 episodes of "Sonic X" will start rolling out on Hulu, while HD subtitled episodes of "5D's" will be streamed on YouTube. English dubbed episodes of "5D's" (edited) will also be added to YouTube around the same time as well.

Not only that, but for the first time ever, uncut subtitled episodes of "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" will be added to YouTube as well! NCOG promises the "GX" episodes will begin rolling out "after 5D’s." I'm not too sure what exactly he means by "after," since 5D's is still airing in Japan. No word yet on if the subbed GX episodes will also include season 4, which was never dubbed by 4Kids or shown in the US.

UPDATE: The source site has since changed it's original sentence "A rights issue in Japan with one of the original voice actors raised it’s head" to simply "A rights issue in Japan raised it’s head" (my RSS reader still has the original version). Not sure why this was modified, but there you go.

Source: http://ncog.fanoozle.com/2009/08/21/ncog-august-21-2009

Andrew "RaymsCreator" Paone, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh GX Abridged & Kannagi Abridged, passed away last week at the young age of 16. A horrible diving accident is said to be the cause. The Abridging community has lost a great soul, one full of wit that brought laughter to his audience. He will be missed.

After his passing, YouTube suspended his account (I can sort of see the logic behind this, but I mean come ON). Fortunately, his videos can still be found online in many places. The above dedication video in particular is moving & quite well done, & showcases his talent. Rest in Peace, RaymsCreator. Thank you for being an Abridger.

http://www.youtube.com/RestInPeaceRayms

Well it turns out that the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's OVA that'll be shown at the 2009 Shonen Jump Super Anime Tour will be a crossover special after all. The latest issue of V-Jump magazine gives us a glimpse of what to expect, with Yugi Muto, Judai Yuki, & Yusei Fudo all taking center stage. It also appears that original Yu-Gi-Oh manga-ka Kazuki Takahashi created the story for this OVA himself, despite having little involvement in both GX & 5D's. Here's what main parts of the article had to say:

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In honor of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime's 10th anniversary, it's been announced that a brand new crossover OVA is in the works! The title is said to be "Battle Royal! Yugi VS Judai VS Yusei! Deja vu, Acceleration!" The title suggests that the three main protagonists from the three different Yu-Gi-Oh series- Yugi Muto in Duel Monsters, Judai Yuki in GX, & Yusei Fudo in 5D's- will all be dueling against each other. Possibly even a Riding Duel, meaning we'd get to see Yugi & Judai on D-Wheels.

That's all we know so far, more information as it becomes available! Can't wait, go Judai! XD

UPDATE: As kc_alex2 helps point out, while a 10th anniversary special has been confirmed, there's nothing official yet saying it'll be about Yugi VS Judai VS Yusei. So for the time being, consider this a rumor.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/playthedamncard/1640923.html

AMXmas 2008:

Merry Christmas, everyone! More terrific & festive videos below:

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4Kids Entertainment has released their Fall schedules for both Saturday morning blocks they control- 4KidsTV on Fox, & the CW4Kids. The schedule confirms once again that Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's will premiere on CW4Kids on September 13 at 10:30am. & with new episodes of Dinosaur King, Ninja Turtles, & Viva Pinata moving from 4KidsTV to CW4Kids, they seem to be all but abandoning their original Fox block. 4KidsTV isn't totally without new programming, though. New episodes of Biker Mice from Mars (really?) & Di-Gata Defenders will continue, as will the new Chaotic season entitled "Chaotic: M'arrillian Invasion." Reruns of the original Chaotic season will air on CW4Kids.

But one thing that's noticeably missing from both blocks' schedules is Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Despite originally scheduled to air on CW4Kids alongside 5D's, the series has now dropped off TV entirely. It's been rumored for awhile now that 4Kids wouldn't dub the final season of GX & instead just focus all of their attention on 5D's. & now with this change in schedule, it appears to be true.

The GX dub ended with the duel between Judai Jaden & Yubel, with Jaden fusing their souls together in order to send everybody else home. The final episode of season 3, which was mostly a recap but also showed Judai returning to Earth at the very end, has not yet been shown. & thus Jaden's fate in the dub remains a mystery, just like the fate of the series itself. It'd be a shame if 4Kids decided to drop the series with only 25 episodes left to go. Maybe the dubbers didn't like Judai's change in attitude in season 4? Let's just hope it'll return eventually. But anyway, here's the schedules for both blocks as they stand now:

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As of this week, the Yu-Gi-Oh GX anime has returned to Cartoon Network after months of being absent from their schedule. Granted it's on at the extremely early timeslot of 6:30am (Eastern/Pacifc) every weekday morning, but at least it's back to its first American home. The show seems to continue on from exactly where it left off when it left CN, with the final few episodes of the "Quest for Rainbow Dragon" saga. Then it'll move into the "Into the Shadows" saga after that but who knows for how long.

These are all episodes that have already been shown on 4KidsTV & the CW4Kids, but I'm pretty sure Cartoon Network wont be showing NEW new episodes. Those will probably air on GX's new home at the CW4Kids first, with repeats of those episodes to air on CN sometime later on. Of course it's hard to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure this is how it'll turn out to be. At least Cartoon Network is ready to get its game on again!

In a recent Hey Answerman column from Anime News Network, the Answerman himself asked readers to write in about what anime world they would like to live in the most. Among the best answers received were DragonBall, Gundam, Pokemon, & Bleach, but perhaps the most interesting (at least to me) was a reader writing to say that Yu-Gi-Oh GX would be his ideal world to live in. & from the sound of it, he's not a card game nut or anything either, but his reasons for GX sound pretty good. Here's what one Charles Morris had to say about it. See if you agree with him:

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