Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Review: For Fans Only

Japan has created a ton of card games over the past few decades, with “Yu-Gi-Oh!” being one of its more successful ones. This series has spawned two manga series, multiple anime series, video games, movies and lots of merchandise. The most recent offering is the movie “Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions” and while fans will fawn over it, non-fans will not get it.

A few years after the departure of Pharaoh, Seito Kaiba is trying to get the “Millennium Puzzle” back in order to bring Pharaoh back. Meanwhile, a mysterious student named Aigami is in the main cast’s senior class. He turns out to be Diva, a new threat to our leads.

Firstly, the tone is all over the place. It goes from light-hearted with corny jokes to super serious constantly. Not even that, the characters still spout corny one-liners even during what’s supposed to be a serious scene. It immediately takes you out of the scene.

Another complaint is that most of the cast is useless during the movie. The worst are Tea and Tristan who do absolutely nothing in the movie. The other characters have little impact on the plot and are used as either a vessel to develop the new character or to pad the run time.

The worst yet is that the movie ends in one of the biggest deus ex machinas you’ll ever see and it was a predictable one. Just when you think the movie will something amazing, it slaps your intelligence with one of the worse ways to end a story.

There are some bright spots. For one, the movie looks just like how a movie version of an anime should be: a spruced-up version of the show and there are some nifty visuals like the monsters. They’re the best-looking bits of the movie. The duels are also well-done and do offer some excitement even if the first duel is a letdown. Most of the acting is passable, but there are times, like sometimes when Sera is talking, they speak in this emotionless monotone voice.

If you’re a fan of “Yu-Gi-Oh!” you’ll find that this is a fun ninety-minute episode of the anime. Everyone else will be put off by the story, bad one-liners, tone and acting. They may find the duels interesting, but overall, this is one only fans will find some merit to it.