Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX

''This article is about the anime series. For the manga, see Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (manga).''

'Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX' (遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズGX Yū☆gi☆ō Dyueru Monsutāzu Jī Ekkusu) is an anime spin-off of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, and is produced by Nihon Ad Systems and Studio Gallop. It started its 180 episode run on TV Tokyo in the autumn of 2004 and ended in spring of 2008. The heavily edited English adaptation of the anime was distributed by 4Kids Entertainment and broadcast on many channels worldwide. ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX is the first Yu-Gi-Oh!'' anime to not be based off of a manga. It makes many references to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, but features an original plot and many new characters to replace the original cast. It later inspired a manga adaption with the same characters, that follows a different plot, in V-Jump magazine

Plot Overview
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX is an indirect sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, set in the years during which it airs. It focuses around a young boy, Judai Yuki, along with his friends and fellow students, and their adventures at Duel Academia - an island boarding school for learning about Duel Monsters. Duel Academia is where most of the action takes place, and is constantly under threat from the forces of chaos. Incidentally, the school was founded by Seto Kaiba. Duel Academia is split into three different dormitories named after the three God Cards, based on the student's skill. The least talented duelists are placed in Osiris Red, those who are successful in entrance exams or show promise go to Ra Yellow, and the best of the best are lucky enough to become part of Obelisk Blue. The quality of dormitory lodgings improves as the rank improves. The main aim of a student is to move up through the ranks. Judai Yuki heavily damages the dignity of the dormitory system by continuously defeating students in Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow, despite only being in Osiris Red.

Seven Stars
Main Article: Seven Stars Arc The first major story arc, where Duel Academia is attacked by the Seven Stars - dueling assassins who are after the most powerful cards sealed under the Academia: the Three Mythic Demons. The plot only kicks in half way through this arc, with the first half being character introductions and light-hearted filler. Most of the characters introduced in this arc would persevere until the end of the series.
 * episodes #001 - #052

Society of Light
Main Article: Society of Light Arc After a crushing defeat, Judai finds himself in Neo-Space, where he meets the Neo-Spacians and discovers that a deadly force called the Light of Destruction intends to whitewash the entire universe. A mystic called Saiou Takuma joins Duel Academia, and quickly begins to whip up support for a cult known as the Society of Light, controlled by the Light of Destruction.
 * episodes #053 - #104

Dimension World
Main Article: Dimension World Arc Some mysterious new students join the Academia, along with the stern Professor Cobra. Cobra instates a new type of duel known as the 'Dis-Duel', where all the students must wear unusual bracelets known as Dis-Belts, which have a deadly effect on the wearer. At the heart of the trouble is a strange androgynous creature known as Yubel who claims to love Judai. Yubel kidnaps the students in a journey across the twelve the dimensions of the Duel Monsters World.
 * episodes #105 - #156

Darkness
Main Article: Darkness Arc In the main cast's last year, everybody is preparing for the future beyond Duel Academia. However, the ultimate force of despair, Darkness, is lurking behind the scenes and people are simply disappearing off the face of the Earth. A more mature Judai must stand up to defeat this final threat, and face his greatest opponent yet.
 * episodes #157 - #180

Adaption to Manga
Main Article: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (manga)  Just over a year after Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX began, a manga spin-off started running in the monthly V-Jump magazine. It is drawn and written by an assistant to Kazuki Takahashi, Naoyuki Kageyama. Although at first the manga seemed to follow the anime's series of events by mentioning Judai's entrance exam against Cronos de Medici, it soon showed that it had its own perspective of events. For example, in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX, Judai is given the Winged Kuriboh card by Yugi Mutou. In the manga, Judai instead receives the card - along with his entire Elemental Hero deck - from a man called Koyo Hibiki, who became his dueling mentor. The Elemental Heroes that Judai uses in the anime are used in the manga by a younger Judai, but after receiving Koyo's deck he switches to this entirely different set of Elemental Heroes. In the manga, the main characters all use either entirely new decks or variations on the decks that they use in the anime. Notably, Jun Manjoume's ever-changing anime deck is replaced by a solid deck of Dragon and Daichi Misawa uses decks based on Japanese folklore, specifically Yōkai. The main story follows a duel tournament at Duel Academia, which is infiltrated by some students from the American Duel Academia. These students are under the control of an Egyptian Ka called Tragoedia, which is trying to resurrect itself after being sealed away for thousands of years.

Animation
Unlike its predecessor, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX featured a fairly stable level of animation quality, rarely changing drastically. This is because the series kept the same animation director, Hideyuki Yoshida. The animation was acceptable if not incredible, and never dipped to an unbearable quality. Some tricks were made use of in the animation: for example, the Duel Monsters would generally explode upon being destroyed, especially later in the series. This prevented any need for gruesome deaths or decapitations, or any awkward animation which might be needed.

Soundtrack
See also: Sound Duel GX Tracklisting The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX score is a very mixed combination of many genres of music, particularly up-beat electronic tunes and rock. It is generally more light-hearted than the soundtrack to the original series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. New music has been introduced with every season, although some of the more significant themes like Judai's Theme have been used throughout the entire show. However, only two Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Sound Duel compilations were released, with many songs in each one-disc set. This meant that the tracks were extremely short, and many tracks - particularly those introduced in the Seven Stars arc - were never released. The opening and ending themes are pop-rock songs by various artists, with BOWL contributing two of the opening themes. The longest-running opening and ending themes were the set of 99% and Wake Up Your Heart, ranging 70 episodes and 2 story arcs.

Openings/Endings

 * Episodes 1-33
 * OP: Jindou - Kaisei Josho Hallelujah
 * ED: JAM Project - Genkai Battle
 * Episodes 34-104
 * OP: BOWL - 99%
 * ED: KENN with the NaBs
 * Episodes 105-156
 * OP: BOWL - Teardrop
 * ED: Bite the Lung - Taiyou
 * Episodes 157-180
 * OP: Psychic Lover - Precious Time, Glory Days
 * ED: Hiroshi Kitadani - Endless Dream

Seiyuu/Voice Actors

 * Yuki Judai - Kenn (Ohashi Kenichirou)
 * Asuka Tenjoin - Kobayashi Sanae
 * Marufuji Sho - Suzuki Masami
 * Marufuji Ryo - Maeda Takeshi
 * Maeda Hayato - Hasu Takehiro
 * Manjoume Jun - Taiki Matsuno
 * Cronos De Medici - Shimizu Hiroshi
 * Misawa Daichi - Masuda Yuki
 * Tenjoin Fubuki - Yusa Kouji
 * Daitokuji - Yamaguchi Kappei
 * Principal Sameshima - Iwasaki Masami
 * Hamaguchi Momoe - Nagahama Mariko
 * Kurada Junko - Taniuchi Tomomi

Related Articles

 * Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Staff and Cast List
 * Episode Guide
 * Media and Release Information