Pharaoh's Memories

The Dawn of the Duel, known in the English manga as "Millennium World", is the second-to-last story arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! second series anime and fourth story arc of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Manga series. The stories told in the anime version and manga versions vary greatly.

Anime version
In the anime, Yami Yugi tries to perform a ritual to unlock his memories using the Egypatian Gods and his Millennium Puzzle, but Dartz's organization (Doma Organization in the Japanese version) causes the "ritual" to fail, and also adds a twist in which the stone tablet at the museum turns to ice, thus causing the ritual to fail. The Grand Championship (KC Grand Prix in the Japanese version) occurs because Yugi Muto (romanized as Yugi Mutou in the English language manga) and his friends need to get back home, and can only do that by entering Kaiba's tournament to promote his company.

Now that Yugi is home after the battle against Dartz, one more quest is about to be undertaken - knowing the true past of Dark Yugi, the spirit of the puzzle. Dark Bakura and Dark Yugi face off, but Dark Bakura tells Dark Yugi to play the ultimate Shadow Game at Egypt.

Moreover, Dark Bakura also duels Seto Kaiba (Kaiba doesn't play a part in the Millennium World saga in the manga), so that Bakura could have the power of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. After the duel Bakura tells Kaiba that something interesting is happening, and Kaiba should go to Egypt, and play the ultimate game. He also gives Kaiba the Millennium Eye, which he had previously taken from Maximillion Pegasus after Duelist Kingdom. Kaiba, even though he doesn't show signs of it, agrees, and goes to Egypt. The gang travels to Egypt, where they meet Marik Ishtar, Ishizu Ishtar and Odion Ishtar (Rishid in the Japanese version). Ishizu explains that the stone tablet at the museum had been moved back to Egypt, deep within the chambers of the Tomb Keepers. The Ishtars leads them to the stone. Before Dark Yugi presents the God Cards, Anzu gives him a cartouche that she had just bought so he could write his name on it when he found it. Dark Yugi shows the three God cards to the Tablet of Lost Memories. This time, a portal is opened, and Dark Yugi and Dark Bakura suddenly go into the tablet.

Dark Yugi's friends realize that the Memory World may be quite dangerous, and Dark Yugi has a very difficult task to do. Therefore, they want to get into the Memory World, but cannot go through the portal in the tablet. Thus, Shadi appears and helps them find the "real" door to the Memory World, deep within the mazes of Dark Yugi's mind in the Millennium Puzzle. The stage is set for the ultimate game.

As Dark Yugi entered the Memory World, he was shocked to find out that he was in the body of his past self. Around him were the six priests: Seto, Akhenaden (Aknadin in the English anime), Mahado (Mahad in the English anime), Isis, Shada, and Kalim (Karim in the English anime), each with their own Millennium Item. Also next to him there was his vizier, Siamun Muran (Shimon in the English anime).

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Yugi and his friends, Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler), Anzu Mazaki (Téa Gardner), and Hiroto Honda (Tristan Taylor) were shocked to find out that Dark Yugi had left the puzzle. So Bobasa (in the manga), or Shadi (in the anime), helped them by using the Millennium Key to open the way to the Maze of Yugi's heart to try and find the door to the Memory World.

Back in the Memory world, Dark Yugi had little time to react his surroundings, because at that moment, Thief King Bakura showed up, possessed by Dark Bakura, who had entered Bakura's body after entering the Memory World. He summons his Ka spirit Diabound and attacks the priests. Bakura reveals his plan to take the seven Millennium Items and gain the Shadow Power of the Evil God Zorc Necrophades by putting them all in the stone slab in an underground crypt in the village of Kul Elna (based off the village of Qurna). The Pharaoh has had enough, and summons Obelisk the Tormentor to attack Diabound, something the other priests are shocked by. In the manga, Obelisk defeats Diabound with ease, while in the anime, Obelisk and Diabound's power was equal (Diabound had the power of the Blue Eyes White Dragon from Dark Bakura's duel againest Kaiba). Bakura retreats, leaving the priests to discuss what happened. Later on, Seto tells Akhenaden about his plan to use the Kas of villagers to create a Ka stronger than Diabound, which Akhenaden objects to.

The next day, the priest Mahado plans to lure Bakura into a trap. He leads Bakura to a tomb he made to look like Akhenamkhanen's tomb. He battles Bakura, but is defeated in the end. He sacrifices his life to fuse his Ka and Ba to turn himself into the Dark Magician. While Bakura does get the Millennium Ring from Mahado, Mahado attacks him and destroys the tomb. But somehow, Bakura manages to escape.

By this point, Yugi and the others had found the door to the Memory World. Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda had to go alone, because Shadi couldn't enter it for some reason. When they arrive in the Memory World, they meet up with Bobasa, who promises to help them. They go to the Palace but cannot get inside. They can pass through other buildings and people like ghosts, but they cannot enter the palace gates.

Seto and Shada go through the streets and the citizens on the street. Seto tells Shada to use his Millennium Key to test the hearts of the people, and try to find people who are home to strong monsters. When Seto tells Akhenaden of his plan, Akhenaden begs for Seto to reconsider, but Seto doesn't listen. A short time later, Bakura, wearing the Millennium Ring, attacks Akhenaden with Diabound. Deciding not to kill Akhenaden, he instead uses the power of the Ring to transfer his evil to Akhenaden.

While on their search for criminals with strong Ka, Seto and Shada stop an angry mob from their assault on an innocent woman. Shada senses her powerful Ka (the Blue Eyes White Dragon) and Seto takes her back with them to the palace. It is later shown in a flashback that Seto and Kisara - the girl - had met before as children. Meanwhile, Akhenaden is resting and has a flashback of what happened fifteen years ago: Akhenaden created the Millennium Items at the cost of sacrificing the village of Kul Elna. It's also revealed that Akhenaden is the younger brother of Aknamkanon, the previous Pharaoh, thus revealing that the Pharaoh and Seto are cousins. Now corrupted by Zorc, Akhenaden's strongest wish is to see Seto rise to the throne as the new Pharaoh of Egypt. When he learns of Kisara's Ka, he is eager to have Seto extract it from her (and use it to usurp Atem), but Seto - out of his feelings for the girl - refuses. Akhenaden then kidnaps him, although Kisara ultimately saves him and dies taking a blow meant for Seto. Distraught, Seto tries to kill Akhenaden, only to have his mind taken over by Akhenaden/Zorc and subsequently forced to duel Pharaoh Atem. During the fight Kisara's spirit saves him by purifying Akhenaden from his mind, and he is able to join Pharaoh Atem in the final battle against Zorc Necrophades.

Differences in the Manga

 * In the original manga, the storyline goes directly from Battle City to the Pharaoh Memory World. There, Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) gets the three Egyptian God Cards, which allow him to regain his memories of the past.
 * In the manga, Yugi never changes to Dark Yugi, so he and Dark Bakura do not talk about the ultimate Shadow Game.
 * Yugi and the gang do not travel to Egypt as the stone tablet is still in the museum.
 * Dark Bakura doesn't enter the tablet, because he knows his shadow in the Millennium Puzzle is still trying to find the door.
 * In the manga, Thief King Bakura was not possessed, since Dark Bakura had not yet entered the Memory World.
 * In the manga, they were being escorted by Bobasa, so they didn't have this problem.
 * The shadow of Dark Bakura that had been left in the Millennium Puzzle was following Yugi and the others throughout the Puzzle. When they reached the door, he followed them out.
 * Since they were already being escorted by Bobasa in the manga, this did not happen.
 * In the manga Seto Kaiba did not attend the trip to the world of memory nor did he have any part in that arc.
 * Kisara's death occurs differently between the anime and manga. In the anime, Kisara is struck down protecting Priest Seto from what appeared to be a dark energy blast. On the other hand in the manga she is killed by Aknadin himself through some sort of lightning attack.

Note: For information on the new characters for this story arc, check out Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga characters.