Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

'Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX' is the successor and first spinoff series to the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga.

Produced by Nihon Ad Systems Inc., or NAS for short, ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' started airing on TV Tokyo in Japan on October 6, 2004. The anime is licensed by 4Kids Entertainment for distribution in the West.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, a manga spinoff of the series written by Naoyuki Kageyama, was published in Shueisha's V Jump magazine in Japan. The manga appears in the United States Shonen Jump magazine.

Production
''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' is produced by Nihon Ad Systems, Inc., and directed by Hatsuki Tsuji. Scripts are prepared by an alternating lineup of writers - Shin Yoshida, Jun Maekawa, Akemi Omode, Yasuyuki Suzuki-with music arrangements by Yutaka Minobe. Takuya Hiramitsu is in charge of sound direction, supervised by Yūji Mitsuya. Character and monster designs are overseen by Kenichi Hara, while Duel layout is overseen by Masahiro Hikokubo.

The "GX" in the series' title is short for the term "Generation neXt". "GENEX" was also the tentative title of the series as evidenced in early promotional work, and also refers to the Genex Tournament that takes place between episodes 84 and 104.

Like many English adaptations of other anime series, ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' is edited due to Americanization. The names of many characters and cards underwent alteration, and card faces and text are edited to only include ATK/DEF statistics, Attribute for monsters, and card type for Spell and Trap Cards. Spell Cards in particular are referred to as such to reflect the revised printing format that surfaced in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game from Magician's Force onwards, though the original term "Magic Card" has been used on several occasions, either due to scripting error or for very specific reasons. Furthermore monster stat displays and Life Point counters, previously in blue and gold print, become digital readouts with color-coded energy bars. The original music score is replaced with a rock-style soundtrack. Darker and more controversial themes such as death, murder, and religion-which were incorporated into the Japanese version - are toned down in the English version.

Themes and structure
Although the first half of the anime's first season began on a whimsical note, the latter half established a noticeably darker atmosphere by introducing supernatural elements similar to those present in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, such as magic, the Shadow Games, and various myths, along with Judeo-Christian subtext. The second season had a strong thematic presence built on destiny, with ties to the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and associated horror fiction authors writing in the Lovecraftian horror, and drew on space opera as a plot device. The third season continued this trend, but with much greater emphasis on emotional torment, with alternate dimensions serving as its primary settings. The third season is easily the darkest, with large number of the main cast appearing to die over the course. Even though most later return, they are believed by both the viewer and the remaining characters to be dead. The fourth season continues character-driven plotlines established in the first season, such as Chazz Princeton's desire to duel professionally, and the students that vanished in the abandoned dormitory.

The program is divided into episodes classified as "Turns". The title sequence and closing credits are accompanied by lyrics varying over the course of the series, with the former immediately followed by an individual episode's number and title. Eyecatches begin and end commercial breaks halfway through each episode; in the first season, there were two eyecatches per episode, usually showcasing the opponents and their key monsters for a given episode while in later seasons, a single eyecatch appears with only the duelists. After the credits, a preview of the next episode, narrated most frequently by KENN and Masami Suzuki, is made, followed by a brief "Today's Strongest Card" segment.

In the English version, the title sequence is accompanied by the song "Get Your Game On!", as are the end credits (in a shortened form). Eyecatches, previews, and the "Today's Strongest Card" featurette are removed entirely.

Story
''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' begins with the lead character, Jaden Yuki, obtaining a "Winged Kuriboh" from Yugi Muto, the renowned Duel Monsters champion. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX follows the exploits of Jaden and his companions as he attends Duel Academy (Duel Academia). The series is set 10 years after the original series.

The Academy was founded by Seto Kaiba on a remote island in the Southern Seas, with its dormitories named after the three Egyptian God Cards, and is run by Chancellor Sheppard (Principal Samejima) and his staff. The most elaborate dormitory, Obelisk Blue (オベリスク・ブルー Oberisuku Burū), is named after "Obelisk the Tormentor". The Obelisk Blue dormitory can be graduated to, but the only way to enter the dorm in the first year is to attend and do well at an affiliated junior school (English version only). As the highest ranked dormitory, Obelisk Blue's facilities are of the highest quality, on the level of the world's classiest hotels and restaurants. The center dorm, Ra Yellow (ラー・イェロー Rā Ierō), is named after "The Winged Dragon of Ra". Those who were given the highest scores in the entrance exam, or whose performance was mediocre in the junior school enter this dormitory, which, while not as extravagant as Obelisk Blue, still has incredibly clean and well-kept facilities as well as meals of a quality far above the lifestyle of the average salaried man. The lowest dorm, Slifer Red (Osiris Red) (オシリス・レッド Oshirisu Reddo), is named after "Slifer the Sky Dragon". Those who scored poorly are put into the shoddy dorms of Slifer Red. The naming choices reflect Kaiba's bias over the God Cards in relation to his rivalry with Yugi (Obelisk was Kaiba's own personal card in Battle City, while Slifer was Yugi's, with Ra in the middle as the most desirable card out of the three until Yugi received it at the end of the story arc).

For the first two years at Duel Academy, the main cast faced major threats including the Shadow Riders (Seven Stars), who intended to revive the Sacred Beasts by creating a strong dueling presence on the island, as well as the Society of Light, which intended to enslave humanity with the world-destroying satellite of Misgarth (in the dubbed version, their aim is to brainwash the world with the satellite). During the third year-right, as a result of Thelonious Viper's schemes (Professor Cobra), Duel Academy is transported to another world, a desert plane with three suns and resident Duel Monster spirits, right into the hands of Yubel. Upon returning home, Jaden and a select group of his partners dive into the rift left in their escape to recover their missing companions and embark through second and third worlds where losing a duel is fatal. In the second half of their third year (Season 4), the characters reflect upon their upcoming graduation and what to do afterward, such as Alexis Rhodes considering becoming a teacher, and Syrus Truesdale taking up his brother's legacy as a Cyber Style duelist. A villain named Trueman also appears and is somehow connected to Atticus and the abandoned dormitory. Later it is shown that Trueman was a minion of Nightshroud (Darkness), who was previously a secondary antagonist from the first season.

Cast
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX sports many personalities. The principal cast is composed of series hero Jaden Yuki, the passionate Alexis Rhodes and her whimsical brother Atticus, the easily discouraged but determined Syrus Truesdale, elitist Chazz Princeton, the analytic Bastion Misawa, the strong-willed Tyranno Hassleberry, and the love-struck Blair Flannigan. Supporting characters often have connections to the educative or professional dueling worlds, and include Obelisk Blue professor Vellian Crowler, duelist-turned-Industrial Illusions designer Chumley Huffington, and Pro League powerhouses Zane Truesdale and Aster Phoenix. The Overseas Champions, like Jesse Anderson, one of the closest Jaden's friends, a group of foreign duelists introduced in the third year, would also find a place in Duel Academy's student body.

Each season of the series has a primary antagonist. The first season has Kagemaru (Duel Academy's Chairman and leader of the Shadow Riders, who wants to take the Sacred Beasts for himself). The second season has Sartorius (founder and leader of the Society of Light, an enigmatic fortune-teller taken over by an alien force who uses his influence to bring people to his side). The third season has Yubel creator of the Martin Empire and the Survival Duels, an evil, deranged, psychotic duel spirit that possesses and manipulates people to rule over all dimensions with Jaden by her side. The fourth season has Nightshroud (a former Shadow Rider that is revealed to be the fate of mankind itself, orchestrating a vicious siege to send all the human beings into the World of Darkness where they will ultimately give up on their own lives). So far, by the end of each season (with exception of the fourth), each of the primary antagonists seems to reform in some way. Kagemaru appeared to see the error his ways, Sartorius was under the Light of Destruction's influence over the whole season, and Yubel had also been driven insane by the Light of Destruction and was freed from it by Jaden and willingly merged with him. Nightshroud was defeated and destroyed by Jaden, but claimed to continue to exist as long as there is darkness in a person's heart.

Also, in addition to the main cast, several cameos from the previous anime series appear within the show, most notably Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, Pegasus and Solomon Muto.

Changes made to the dub

 * Most characters' names.
 * Some cards' names.
 * Most monsters' attack and effect names.
 * Changing the script, music and personalities to make the show more marketable to an American audience.
 * Altering or removing references to death, religion and violence.
 * Changing Life Point meters to digital readouts with color-coded energy bars.
 * Changing the sound effects, and replacing them with new ones. None of the original Japanese sound effects remain.
 * Removing Japanese and English text and sometimes replacing it with unreadable symbols.
 * Removing all scenes and mentions of blood and changing it to another brand of plasma.
 * Replacing references to death with being "sent to the stars", though death is still implied.
 * There are some differences made with Yubel
 * References to obscure Japanese food and culture are not edited and used in the English dub.

Incomplete dubbed series
4Kids decided to start dubbing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's before it released dubbed versions of episode 156 (the last episode of Season 3 in Japan, which is a recap episode), as well as episodes 157-180 (Season 4).

An e-mail message reply from the 4KidsTV webmaster as to why GX Season 4 was not dubbed is as follows:

"Thank you for writing to us about your interest in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Because a lot of our resources are dedicated to dubbing and airing Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, we will not be dubbing season four of GX for the foreseeable future. However, this does not mean that we won't ever dub it, it just means that it is not on the schedule anytime soon."

However, a second E-mail asking on whether or not ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' is scheduled to return or not states:

"Stay tuned for updates... (4/13/2010) The Anime should be making a return Fall of 2010."

"Thank you for writing to us about your interest in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. With Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's in full throttle, the final battle between Yubel and Jaden was meant to be the series finale here in the United States." (5/20/11)

However, a fourth email from the webmaster goes as follows:

"Thank you for writing to us about your interest in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. As of May 2011, we do intend to keep final battle between Yubel and Jaden the GX finale indefinitely. Stay tuned as we are close on announcing a fourth installment in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise! Don't forget to catch new episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's every Saturday morning on The CW 4kids Toonzai. " (7/20/11).