Yu-gi-oh: Giving anime a bad name since 1996

I watch anime to enjoy depth of characterization, intricately layered plot, well-developed symbolism, and yes, cute androgynous cartoon-people. When they all come together, as in Revolutionary Girl Utena (which also has fantastic music), the results transcend entertainment, animated or otherwise. You could call it art, but in a case like Utena, you could even call it cosmic.

[Sidebar: Cowboy Bebop also has wonderful characterization and music, and while the series is episodic instead of a continuous unfolding narrative, the individual episodes have well-crafted, surprising plots. It's my favourite non-shoujo anime by a mile.]

I'm glad that anime is quickly becoming mainstream in the US, but while it's a treat to be able to pick up Bebop and Utena at Suncoast, the shelves at Best Buy are eloquent testimony to the sad fact that many anime shows are drivel or worse: pointless mopey schoolyard love triangles with interchangeable non-evocative titles, giant robot sagas in interchangeable post-apocalyptic settings, and pointless excuses for cross-dressing. Maybe Strawberry Eggs is a great show with crap packaging (like Central Park Media's tragic mishandling of Utena), but I'm not even inclined to find out.

Just above the bottom of the barrel are probably the "gimmick" shows that exist solely to get kids to collect stuff-- cards, mainly. I exempt Card Captor Sakura (NOT Cardcaptors!) from condemnation-- it was a CLAMP manga, it's very visually appealing, and it has actual characterization that was all ruthlessly excised from the English dub. Yu-gi-oh, however, is vile. The main character, Yugi Moto, is one of the ugliest little freaks to have a show centered around him, the supporting characters are bland, and the English voicework is contemptible. The Egypt-invoking plot is as unoriginal as it is crappy, and can anime shows please stop naming characters Anubis? The card-game itself is apparently fairly demanding, but I don't play card games and won't give the show a pass for that.

I anticipated that the just-released Yu-gi-oh! movie would make the Pokemon flicks look like Tezuka's Metropolis by comparison, but the critical mauling it's received (a whopping 2% positive on rottentomatoes.com) has been gratifying. True, most reviewers were too irked by the gimmick to even wax eloquent about the film's crappiness, but some were detailed enough to confirm that Dan Green does the dubbed voice of Yugi. That's a sign of quality, oh yes-- Green was reponsible for the slimy vocalizations that ruined the character of Mikage in the Utena dub. Given that Hikaru Midorikawa was the original Mikage, that's a hell of a come-down. I suppose I could say that Green has finally found his niche, but Yugi's dubbed voice is so objectively unpleasant that it makes Yu-gi-oh more unwatchable than it already is.

I can only hope that the movie's release marks the downswing of the Yu-gi-oh franchise.