Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light

'''Yu-Gi-Oh! the Movie: The Pyramid of Light, known in Japan as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Pyramid of Light''' is an anime film based on the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. The director of this film is Ryosuke Takahashi.

The characters and naming are the same as the English version of the Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters television show.

Synopsis
The events of Battle City have just concluded, and Yugi now owns all three Egyptian God Cards. Seto Kaiba longs to finally defeat him, and he has a plan. He suspects that since Maximillion Pegasus created the Egyptian God Cards, he would have also created a way to beat them. Just in case.

Kaiba heads off to Pegasus' retirement castle, and challenges him to a duel. If Pegasus wins, he gets Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragons, but if Kaiba wins, Pegasus hands over the card that can beat the Egyptian Gods. Kaiba wins, and Pegasus fulfills his wager, giving two cards to Kaiba. However, Pegasus only created one card, so where did the other one come from?

Meanwhile, Yugi and Téa, seeking refuge from a mob of duelists wanting to face Yugi for the Egyptian Gods, stumble into Domino Museum, where they discover a new attraction on display. It's called the Pyramid of Light, and it looks a little like the Millennium Puzzle. Once Grandpa, who they also stumble across, reads an inscription on the side of a sarcophagus, also part of the exhibit, Yugi has a strange vision about Kaiba. They wake up to find the pyramid stolen, the sarcophagus empty, and Mokuba standing outside. Mokuba says that Kaiba wants Yugi to bring his duel disk to the KaibaCorp. Duel Dome immediately.

Yugi does so, transforming into the Pharaoh on the way, and finds Kaiba ready to duel. He seals all the exits, forcing Yugi to duel him, but not before Joey and Tristan find their way in to watch.

The duel goes on for what seems like an eternity, and Yugi is starting to suspect that there are dark forces at work - especially when Kaiba activates a trap card called the Pyramid of Light, which not also bares a striking resemblance to the pyramid in the museum, but also prevents Yugi from summoning any Egyptian Gods! Before long, Kaiba has his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon on the field, but to Yugi's surprise, he sacrifices it to summon a monster known as the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, which is even stronger!

Kaiba could win the duel there and then, but he wants to humiliate Yugi by wiping him out with his own Egyptian Gods! Pyramid of Light removed the gods from play, and he wants to play Return from the Different Dimension to get them under his control. Of course, to do that, he needs to destroy the Pyramid of Light first, otherwise it would just destroy the gods again! Kaiba commands his Shining Dragon to use its "Shining Nova" effect, which allows it to sacrifice itself to destroy anything on the field - and he aims it at the Pyramid of Light. Suddenly, a ghostly voice calls out, "This I cannot allow!", and the Pyramid stays exactly where it is. Then, a man rises up from behind Kaiba, throws him aside, and takes over the duel himself. And he has the Pyramid of Light around his neck.

It's Anubis, the Egyptian Lord of the Dead, whom the Pharaoh destroyed 5000 years ago. But now he's back with his secret weapon - Theinen the Great Sphinx! On top of this, Téa, Joey, Tristan and Yugi are trapped inside the Millennium Puzzle, leaving the Pharaoh to duel all alone. Putting all his faith into the cards, Yugi draws the Double Spell card (This card was accidently made to look like Exchange, but was supposed to be Double Spell), which allows him to discard his Diffusion Wave Motion to activate Monster Reborn from the graveyard. He uses it to revive Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon and uses it to destroy the Pyramid of Light, after it was weakened by Yugi inside the Millennium Puzzle. With the Pyramid of Light gone, so was the Great Sphinx, and Anubis is seemingly defeated. But, a giant Jackal arises from the remains of the Pyramid.

Kaiba and Yugi join forces, putting all their strength into the Shining Dragon card, and using Shining Nova to destroy Anubis once and for all. On top of it all, Pegasus was back to help them, and gets them out of the explosion in time.

Relation to Canon
Like Dragon Ball Z movies (except some actual canon movies) there is some problem within the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. In the movie, Anubis was killed by Pharaoh Atem 3000 years ago (5000 in the English anime), and was resurrected when Yugi completed the Millennium Puzzle. In the first series anime, Yugi was beaten up by Ushio who also beaten up Jonouchi and Honda, and he completed the puzzle while beaten up and became Dark Yugi. Plus in Dawn of The Duel arc, Anubis was never shown or killed by Atem (The battle must be off-screen).On an episode, Jonouchi said "This room looks bigger than last time", but was never shown, so the Anubis in the movie would be a non-canon character.

Mistakes in the Movie
In the English version of the movie, the makers made many mistakes, however most of them were fixed when it aired in Japan.

After Pegasus used Card of Sanicity, when he drew his 6 cards. He had the original Dark Magician Girl in his hand but when he summoned it, it was Toon Dark Magician Girl.

Pegasus played 'Ultimate Offering' when dueling against Kaiba, so that he could summon more Toon monsters in one turn, at the cost of 500 Life points per monster, however, Toons are special summoned, not normal summoned, so 'Ultimate Offering' was completely unneeded. (This was not changed when it aired in Japan.)

When Joey challenged a group of duelists wanting to have a go at Yugi and his God Cards, the first challenger summoned Injection Fairy Lily on the first turn. The entire card itself was either vertically reversed, or placed upside-down while horizontally reversed.

Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon gained attack points from having dragon cards in his graveyard, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon gained attack from having 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Rare Metal Dragon, however for no reason the Blue-Eyes gained no attack points from having 'Paladin of White Dragon' in the graveyard. (This was not changed when it aired in Japan.)

In his duel againist Yugi, Kaiba's Deck Destruction Virus should not have been able to activate due to Peten the Dark Clown being a Dark/Spellcaster and not a Dark/Fiend.

When Kaiba used 'Shining Nova' to destroy Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon to destroy Pyramid of Light, although the attack failed, we see Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon disappear and later Yugi plays 'Monster Reborn' to re-summon it from the graveyard, however, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon appears next to Anubis for a short time, after it had already died after activating it's effect. Additionally, Yugi couldn't have revived "Blue Eyes Shining Dragon", since its effect states that it can only be summoned by tributing "Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon".

When Anubis' Sphinx Teleia destroyed Yugi's Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, Sphinx Telia's effect was not activated, which would have decreased Yugi's Life points to zero, however when Andro Sphinx destroyed Watapon, Andro Sphinx's effect was activated. (This was not changed when it aired in Japan.) In addition, Obnoxious Celtic Guardian should not have been destroyed because Teleia's attack points were higher than 1900.

In the English version of the movie, during Yugi's final turn after his Draw Phase, we can see Exchange and Diffusion Wave-Motion in his hand. In the Japanese version of the movie it was Exchange and Double Spell.

When Anubis used 'Inferno Tempest' and 'Fallout' to make Yugi and Kaiba drop all of their cards, we are shown two Winged Dragon Of Ra's flying out of Yugi's Duel Disk, however there are only one of each Egyptian God Card in existence.

Seto Kaiba vs. Maximillion Pegasus
Pegasus
 * Pays 1000 LP (Pegasus 3000) to activate Toon World
 * Summons Toon Gemini Elf (1900/900)
 * Sets a card

Kaiba
 * Summons X-Head Cannon (1800/1500) in defense position
 * Sets two cards

Pegasus
 * Activates Card of Sanctity, and Cost Down
 * Summons Toon Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700)
 * Attacks Seto directly with Toon Gemini Elf (Seto 2100)
 * Seto discards a card (Monster Reborn)
 * Attacks with Toon Dark Magician Girl
 * Seto activates Attack Guidance Armor, redirecting the attack to Toon Gemini Elf (Pegasus 2900)
 * Pegasus activates Monster Reborn to revive TGE
 * Activates Ultimate Offering, letting him pay 500 LP to Normal Summon another monster
 * Tributes TGE to Summon Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon (3000/2500) (Pegasus 2400)
 * Pays another 500 LP (Pegasus 1900) to summon Toon Summoned Skull (2500/1200)

Kaiba
 * Activates Dark Core, discarding Y-Dragon Head to remove X-Head Cannon from play
 * Activates Soul Release to remove Y-Dragon Head from play
 * Summons Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300)
 * Activates Return from the Different Dimension, paying half his LP (Seto 1050) to Special Summon X-Head Cannon (1300/1500) and Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600)
 * Removes all three monsters from play to Special Summon XYZ-Dragon Cannon (2800/2600)
 * Activates its effect to destroy Toon World and attacks Pegasus directly (Pegasus 0)

Kaiba wins

Yugi vs. Seto Kaiba/Anubis

 * Kaiba Summons Familiar Knight (1200/1400) in defense position

Yugi
 * Summons Queen's Knight (1500/1600) and destroys Familiar Knight, activating its effect
 * Seto Special Summons Rare Metal Dragon (2400/1200)
 * Yugi Special Summons King's Knight (1600/1400), which in turn lets him Special Summon Jack's Knight (1900/1000)
 * Sets a card

Kaiba
 * Sets a card

Yugi
 * Tributes his three monsters to Summon Slifer the Sky Dragon (X000/X000)
 * Slifer gains 1000 ATK/DEF for each card in Yugi's hand (3000/3000)
 * Destroys Rare Metal Dragon (Seto 3400)

Kaiba
 * Activates Obligatory Summon, forcing Yugi to Special Summon his other two Egyptian God Cards (4000/4000) (?/?)
 * Activates Pyramid of Light to remove them from play
 * Activates Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Yugi's Set card
 * Summons Peten the Dark Clown (500/1200)
 * Attacks Yugi directly (Yugi 3500)
 * Sets a card

Yugi
 * Summons Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800)
 * Destroys Peten the Dark Clown (Seto 2300)
 * Seto activates Deck Destruction Virus, sending 10 random cards from Yugi's Deck to his Graveyard. He can also Special Summon another Peten the Dark Clown (500/1200)

Kaiba
 * Summons Des Feral Imp (1600/1800)
 * Activates Card of Demise
 * Activates White Dragon Ritual, Tributing Des Feral Imp to Ritual Summon Paladin of White Dragon (1900/1200)
 * Destroys Magician's Valkyria (Yugi 3200)
 * Tributes his PoWD to Special Summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000/2500)
 * Sets a card

Yugi
 * Activates Premature Burial, paying 800 LP (Yugi 2400) to Special Summon Magician's Valkyria
 * Equips it with Mage Power, giving it 500 ATK/DEF for every Spell and Trap card on his side of the field
 * Sets two cards
 * Valkyria attacks
 * Seto activates Attack Guidance Armor to redirect the attack to Peten the Dark Clown. This activates Deck Destruction Virus's effect, sending 10 more cards from Yugi's Deck
 * Another Peten the Dark Clown is Special Summoned

Kaiba
 * Activates Polymerization, sending all three Blue-Eyes in his hand and field to the Graveyard to Fusion Summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800)
 * Destroys Magician's Valkyria (Yugi 1500)

Yugi
 * Activates Monster Reborn to Special Summon Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700)
 * Activates Sage's Stone, Special Summoning Dark Magician (2500/2100) to the field
 * Tributes both to Special Summon Sorcerer of Dark Magic (3200/2800)
 * SoDM's effect decreases BEUD's ATK to 3000 (Note: SoDM does not have this effect in the real game)
 * SODM destroys BEUD (Seto 2100)

Kaiba
 * Passes

Yugi
 * Destroys Peten the Dark Clown
 * Seto tries to use the effect of Deck Destruction Virus but SoDM negates and destroys it

Kaiba
 * Activates Monster Reborn to Special Summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
 * Tributes it to Special Summon Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon (3000/2500). With five Dragon-Type monsters in his Graveyard, its ATK increases to 4500
 * Yugi tries to use SoDM's effect but Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon negates it
 * Destroys Sorcerer of Dark Magic (Yugi 200)

Yugi
 * Summons Big Shield Gardna (100/2600) in defense position

Kaiba
 * Sets a card
 * Destroys Big Shield Gardna

Yugi
 * Activates Pot of Greed
 * Special Summons Watapon in defense position due to its effect
 * Summons Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1400/1200) in defense position

Kaiba Anubis
 * Card of Demise sends Spear Dragon to the Graveyard
 * Seto Tributes Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon to destroy the Pyramid of Light (Note: In the real game, BESD does not have this effect) but Anubis intervenes, takes Seto's place, and knocks him out
 * Anubis Special Summons Andro Sphinx (3000/2500) and Sphinx Teleia (2500/3000) (Attack power not shown, but must have attack within this range to destroy Obnoxious Celtic Guardian) (It is not known if he had to pay 500 LP each, which is required in the real game)

Yugi
 * Sets a card

Anubis
 * Destroys Obnoxious Celtic Guard with Sphinx Teleia (Note: In the movie, Sphinx Teleia apparently has the ability to negate the effects of monsters it battles, otherwise, Obnoxious Celtic Guard would not have been destroyed.)
 * Destroys Watapon with Andro Sphinx, this activates his special effect (Yugi 100)

Yugi
 * Draws his last card
 * Activates Double Spell (has the image of Diffusion Wave-Motion in the English version) by discarding Exchange to activate Monster Reborn from Seto's Graveyard
 * Special Summons Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, then tributes it to destroy the Pyramid of Light. This also destroys both of Anubis' monsters
 * Anubis Special Summons Theinen the Great Sphinx (3500/3000)
 * Activates Reverse of Reverse, activating Seto's face-down Return from the Different Dimension, paying half his Life Points (Yugi 50) to Special Summon his three Egyptian God Cards (4000/4000) (0/0) (?/?)
 * Tributes The Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon to activate Obelisk the Tormentor's effect, destroying all of Anubis's monsters and inflicting 4000 damage to Anubis (Anubis 0)

Yugi wins

Monster Cards

 * Blue-Eyes White Dragon
 * Obelisk the Tormentor (Giant God Soldier of Obelisk)
 * The Winged Dragon of Ra (The Sun God Dragon of Ra)
 * Slifer the Sky Dragon (Sky Heaven Dragon of Osiris)
 * Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon
 * Injection Fairy Lily (Injection Angel Lily)
 * Fenrir
 * Inpachi
 * Maju Garzett
 * Gearfried the Iron Knight
 * Baby Dragon
 * Rocket Warrior
 * Little-Winguard
 * Gilford the Lightning
 * Toon Gemini Elf
 * X-Head Cannon
 * Toon Dark Magician Girl (Toon Black Magician Girl)
 * Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon
 * Toon Summoned Skull (Toon Demon)
 * Y-Dragon Head
 * Z-Metal Tank (Z-Metal Caterpillar)
 * XYZ-Dragon Cannon
 * Familiar Knight
 * Queen's Knight
 * Rare Metal Dragon
 * King's Knight
 * Jack's Knight
 * Peten the Dark Clown
 * Magician's Valkyria
 * Des Feral Imp (Death Gremlin)
 * Magician's Valkyria
 * Paladin of White Dragon (Knight of White Dragon)
 * Dark Magician Girl (Black Magician Girl)
 * Dark Magician (Black Magician)
 * Sorcerer of Dark Magic (Magic Hierophant of Black)
 * Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon
 * Big Shield Gardna (Big Shield Gardner)
 * Watapon
 * Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (Fooling Elf Swordsman)
 * Spear Dragon
 * Andro Sphinx
 * Sphinx Teleia
 * Theinen the Great Sphinx (Sphinx Andro Judas)

Spell Cards

 * Polymerization (Fusion)
 * Megamorph
 * Toon World
 * Card of Sanctity (Treasure of Heavens)
 * Cost Down
 * Monster Reborn (Raise Dead)
 * Dark Core (Black Core)
 * Soul Release
 * Obligatory Summon
 * Mystical Space Typhoon (Cyclone)
 * Card of Demise (Treasure of Slashing Life)
 * White Dragon Ritual
 * Premature Burial
 * Mage Power (Power of Mage)
 * Sage's Stone (Stone of Sage)
 * Pot of Greed
 * Diffusion Wave-Motion (was supposed to be Double Spell)
 * Exchange
 * Double Spell (Double Magic)
 * Fallout (used by Anubis to attack Yugi and Seto)
 * Inferno Tempest (Hell Tempest) (used by Anubis to attack Yugi and Seto)

Trap Cards

 * Attack Guidance Armor
 * Ultimate Offering (Compensation of Blood/Vendetta)
 * Return from the Different Dimension
 * Pyramid of Light
 * Mirror Force (Holy Barrier Mirror Force. Played face-down and destroyed by Mystical Space Typhoon)
 * Deck Destruction Virus (Complete Destruction Genocide Virus)
 * Reverse of Reverse

Trivia
This movie was in theatres in America before the Battle City Finals ended, somewhat spoiling the ending for those who saw the movie.

VIZ Media released an "ani-manga" comic book version of the movie with the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon as part of their Shonen Jump lineup.

This movie is not to be confused with the 30-minute Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie that was released in Japan and produced by Toei Animation.

The movie aired in theaters in North America, Europe, Australia, and later in Japan. After the late Japanese theatrical movie release on Christmas Eve, the movie aired in Japan on TV Tokyo on January 2, 2005. The Japanese version is known to run 11 minutes longer.

In the English version of the movie, it was completely edited when it first appeared in theaters in the US, but the Japanese language version that's been released in Special Screenings and later released in theaters in Japan differs in content, uncut, and complete with cards in Japanese. The Japanese version is in 101 minutes and the English version is originally in 90 minutes. Many scenes in the English version were omitted, switched, and some were altered.

The original Japanese story calls for the Pharaoh's past to take place 3000 years ago, but the English translators misread this as 3000 BC, hence the English date of 5000 years ago. However, some believe this was intentional, since nothing is known about Ancient Egypt as it was 5000 years ago, and therefore the non-existence of Pharaoh Atem cannot be proved. If the date of 3000 years ago was used, then a basic knowledge of Egyptian history is enough to collaborate the fact that Pharaoh Atem did not exist.

The movie was the only part of the animated series adapted for the United States that had text on the cards being played; unlike the Japanese version, the English translation completely edited the text out of the cards due to FCC regulations. The English anime expanded the art on them to fill the gap. The cards in the movie also retained the visual rarity that their real-world card game counterparts have, with the rarer cards having gold lettering on them, to match those of an Ultra Rare card. In addition, the Life Point counters used in this duel are the same used in the original Japanese series.

In the beginning of the movie, it is said that Yugi defeated Seto Kaiba to win the finals of the Battle City Duel Monsters tournament; this is not true, for it was Marik Ishtar / Dark Marik that Yugi defeated to win the finals of the Battle City Duel Monsters tournament.

Much like the early Pokémon theatrical releases, the movie released limited-edition promotional cards alongside the tickets bought for the movie. To further stretch the card game tie-in, an exclusive movie pack was released in card shops to help garner interest in the movie.

The movie character, Anubis, does not exist within the anime or manga.

"Kill" and "Die" were actually used in this movie. Considering villains saying Yugi or Atem will be sent the Shadow Realm, Anubis is the only villain to say "die". It is possible that it was forgotten to be taken off the line, or was used accidently, or intentionally. As for 'Killed', it was used only on the prophesy read by Yugi's grandfather. There's also where violent comments like Anubis says, "Soon worms will feast your flesh, just they did on mine", and saying "You will be destroyed" is a hint that he will kill Atem. However, this movie is considered an "uncut movie" to some, because there is no obsure towards where mummies is being dismembered. The cards are displayed in their TCG form, but Dark Magician Girl had her pentagram instead of her censored 'ruby'.

Although the musical score (background instrumentals) was released for the Japanese version of the movie, the score for the English version was never released.

The movie was parodied by LittleKuriboh and released online as Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Movie on June 18, 2007.

Characters in the movie
Anubis (アヌビス Anubisu) - In the English version of the movie, Anubis wants revenge on Yami Yugi (Known in the English manga as Dark Yugi) and awakens after Yugi Muto solves the Millennium Puzzle. Pharaoh Atem had defeated Anubis a long time ago. Anubis possesses the cards Andro Sphinx and Sphinx Teleia, which can be merged into Theinen the Great Sphinx. In the Japanese version of the movie, Anubis wants revenge by using the King of Light (Kaiba) to defeat the King of Darkness (Dark Yugi) in order to revive Anubis, the King of Destruction and use Kaiba to become the new king and rule the world. Since he has never shown in the anime of manga, he is a non-canon character (However, Kazuki Takahashi DID design Anubis).