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When watching through the series for the first or the tenth time, it’s always fun to point out the obvious and not-so-obvious flukes and flubs. Some of the best ones involve the characters not following the rules of the game they’re supposed to be experts at, hilarious art mistakes, and translation changes that make everything so much more iconic. It’s time for you to rewatch the show, or start watching for the first time!
10 Lightforce Sword
For Yugi’s very first turn in his match with a Rare Hunter, he draws and plays the trap card, Lightforce Sword. However, anyone watching should have caught on that playing a trap card for your first move is against the rules of the game.
The audience and his opponent accept the obviously foul play from Yugi. Though it worked in the show, it definitely wouldn’t work in the real game.
9 Going Beyond Infinity
When dueling with Dartz, a former resident of Atlantis, Yugi is faced with Divine Serpent Geh, the monster card that has infinite strength, making it seemingly unbeatable. He pulls some unforeseen moves and combines the attack power of his top cards to create the Knight of Destiny.
Apparently, by doing this, Yugi created a card that was “a force beyond infinity,” though anyone who can do math knows that doesn’t exist. You can’t have a number above infinity.
8 Awkwardly Stretched Features
The animation in Yu-Gi-Oh! is definitely a bit rough at times, but it’s forgivable since the show is just so good. However, the shape of some character’s bodies can change drastically from scene to scene.
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Whether it’s on purpose to exaggerate their emotion or just a mistake in the animation, the painfully distorted features are hilarious to point out. From wacky fingers to long necks to stretched faces, there are so many instances of this happening throughout the series.
7 Joey’s Iconic Creepy Chin
Speaking of distorted facial features, there is one screenshot of an episode where Joey has an abnormally awkward chin and a creepy smile. This screenshot became a meme as Japanese and American viewers found his face too funny to forget.
Joey’s chin has been photoshopped on a variety of other anime characters and can still be found circulating on the internet to this day.
6 Yugi Technically Cheating In Duels
Now, the justification behind Yugi being able to fight in duels alongside Yami is accepted by viewers of the anime because they are both technically in a single body going against a single opponent. However, having two intelligent minds working together to win a Battle Monsters game against their individual opponent is kind of cheating.
It takes Yugi sometime before he can really understand who Yami is and how he can work with him, but once he does, they work together seamlessly and basically defeat anyone they’re up against. Two heads are better than one, especially when one is an all-powerful ancient being.
5 Joey’s Hair Changes
As Yugi is caught up in a duel, Joey is in his typical spot on the sidelines, cheering on his friend. Everyone knows Joey for his wild blonde hair, but in this scene, along with a few others in the show, he appears a bit different.
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In one shot of Joey watching the duel, his hair is randomly brown. How this obvious mistake got into the final draft of the show is very confusing, especially considering how much of his hair takes up the screen. In other episodes, Joey’s hair goes from bright blonde to an orangey blonde to a light brown, and the shape of it can change too!
4 Yugi’s Transformations
It is later somewhat explained that Yugi doesn’t actually transform into an adult once he is possessed by Yami. However, anyone beginning to watch the series without prior knowledge of the story is going to be incredibly confused every time Yugi changes in front of his friends and literally no one notices.
Yugi’s voice, personality, and appearance all change, but nobody says anything. Of course, it is later cleared up that the changes are only for the audience to visually see when Yami is taking over, but it isn’t really explained for new watchers to understand that.
3 Joey Forgetting The Rules
When Joey is dueling against Espa Roba, he summons Giltia without following the Tribute Summon rule. This could have been because Joey is still vaguely new at Battle Monsters and he simply didn’t know, but he actually follows the rule in an earlier match against Rare Hunter.
Therefore, Joey definitely knows the rule exists, he just happens to forget about it in a later duel. Espa notices this mistake and doesn’t let the blonde get away with it.
2 Kaiba’s Bad Strategy
At the Battle City semi-finals, Kaiba is all bark and no bite when he’s stating that he can take down Yugi. After studying Yugi’s card deck over their many duels and claiming to know the best strategy to defeat him, Kaiba should have been able to win. However, Kaiba instead makes a variety of mistakes that cause him to lose.
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Kaiba fuses his three dragons to create a powerful 4500 card but he should have clearly known that Yugi had certain cards that could take this foe down. He made so many dumb mistakes for a Battle Monsters expert, especially when he had many more useful cards that could have better taken Yugi down.
1 Pegasus’ PG-Rated Drink
Though Pegasus is obviously a grown man, aged older than the legal drinking age in any country, his English dub does not allow him to enjoy adult beverages. As he enjoys cheeses and a wine glass of red liquid, he states he is indulging in “his favorite Gorgonzola cheese, and the world’s finest fruit juice.”
In the Japanese version, Pegasus claims it is wine and not juice, but in English, he is deprived of the privilege to enjoy a glass of wine with his cheese. It is truly one of the most hilarious and iconic lines when watching the English dub.
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