I shortened Yu-Gi-Oh!’s 2nd season down to about an hour ★★★★☆
Battle city definitely feels like the definitive arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! It’s the longest running, it introduces the Egyptian god cards1 and the duels almost have consistent rules now. Even just watching back over edited down versions filled with gags I can’t help but get excited over the Mime Control duel being hype as fuck. I also love shit like such a huge deal being made of the Egyptian god cards1 and then making a big moment of Kaiba sacrificing Obelisk to summon another Blue Eyes White Dragon. It’s also funny looking at the attempts at censorship of the rare hunters’ Saw traps into shadow games and how I did not question it at all as a child. And the show itself still so funny in the deathly seriousness of it all. The announcement on the Kaiba Corp. blimp of “We have reached the official duelling altitude” absolutely sent me.
Battle City feeling like the most important part of the show does highlight how the rest of it felt a bit disappointing. Bakura never felt like a credible villain. He’s barely relevant in Duellist Kingdom and gets overshadowed and beaten by Marik here. And to have gone so hard on Duel Monsters to try to pivot back to ancient Egypt and general shadow games at the end was weird. But I’m getting ahead of myself now, that’s for a future review.
Setting aside my nostalgia for the show to talk about the jokey edited versions of the episodes I am actually watching: Bing Bong continues to make very fun editing choices: Leaving in every instance of the phrase Egyptian god cards1 and the rules of what Pot of Greed do, the general abrupt responses and abbreviated card names.
“Time to awaken the Winged Dragon of Ra by reciting the ancient chant! Please.”
Fun fact: Parts three and four of Friends ’Til the End were released on Game Boy Advance Video but parts one and two were not.