Ah right. Long time overdue but here are my thoughts for each individual series not counting, Zexal because I've already given my thoughts on it. Starting with the original king of games himself for Kazuki Takahashi.
Hmm Well not much to say about, Only that it was one of my childhood joys. As some if not all here already know, the anime series starts off at the Duelist Kingdom arc where the card game actually becomes a focal point in the manga. The main cast introductions and character development up till that point were skipped or just glossed over so there you go. Again you have to read the manga or watch season 0. For instance Dark Yugi A.K.A Pharaoh Atem displayed more anti-heroic tendencies that does quite sociopathic forms of justice on those that wrong Yugi or the gang, and if you thought Kaiba was an d*** in the anime, his behaviour was worse in the manga pre-duelist kingdom.
Anyway for the series itself just a few problems personally speaking. Duelist kingdom seemed a bit far fetched and had no particular explanation for why they able to do some of those a-pull moves. Justified though as Takahashi didn't think of the specific rules yet that would become the real life card game lol. Battle City was the best arc by far but I wished some of the quarter fiinal matches weren't so determined by plot armor and the victories were being achieved by things other than actual card play.
The filler arcs were not a high point for me, as they conflict with the canon story lines to an extent, and the plots themselves were not that interesting. That said the duels were a lot better admittedly and felt more like the real life card game.
Dawn of the duel was quite good but at the same time a bit confusing. On the one hand you visit Dark Yugi's past as Pharaoh and watch the origin of duelling, in the form of the Ka-Ba Shadow game. Well I specify this game because contrary to what the anime says, the monsters thing was not the only type of shadow game there is. But the manga confimrms that Dark Yugi's memory that we experience was a Table Top RPG shadow game made by Dark Bakura, and imply that, due to it being a game, events may not have transpired that way.
The Last duel though, that was AMAZING, it was fierce and emotional and that's all I'll say on the matter. All in All, despite my problems with the original it remains one of my all time favourites.
I'll do GX next
Edited by Phantom_999, 29 January 2017 - 12:13 AM.