Top 10 WTF Yu-Gi-Oh Moments

“Yu-Gi-Oh!” (2000-04)

While searching for his kidnapped brother, Kaiba is ambushed by his former employee Saruwatari. In the original Japanese anime, Saruwatari holds his old boss at gunpoint. Instead of showing concern, Kaiba encourages Saruwatari to shoot him. Kaiba prevents the gun from going off at the last second by jamming its firing mechanism with a monster card. We have to know how he defied the laws of physics and threw a card faster than a gun could go off. Did Kaiba practice this technique beforehand? But the most shocking part of this confrontation is seeing how ready Saruwatari was to end his former boss’ dueling career permanently. Kaiba really needs to treat his employees better.

“Yu-Gi-Oh! GX” (2004-07)

A normal day at Duel Academy is disrupted when a duel disk-wielding monkey named Wheeler kidnaps Jasmine. Using a special device that allows him to speak, he verbally agrees to release her if Jaden beats him in a duel. While Wheeler shows off his monkey-themed deck, scientists reveal they tortured the poor chimpanzee whenever he made a mistake playing the card game. You heard that correctly. Within the “Yu-Gi-Oh” universe, scientists tortured a chimpanzee until it was good at playing duel monsters. It’s never made clear why Wheeler was put through this heinous experiment. In the time it took them to teach a chimpanzee to duel, they could’ve researched alternative energy sources or figured out the physics of Yugi’s hair.

“Yu-Gi-Oh!” (2000-04)

Before Mai enters the Battle City Finals, a famous actor named Jean-Claude Magnum asks for her hand in marriage, to which she agrees...if he beats her in a duel. This ridiculous premise still isn’t the strangest part of the episode. When Magnum inevitably loses, he orders a stuntman dressed as a duel monster to kidnap Mai by lifting her into the sky. Luckily, she’s able to escape and land safely on top of Joey. After this crazy incident, the police are called and arrest Magnum. Just kidding! Since this was a filler episode, Mai and her friends forget all about his insane kidnapping attempt. The pharaoh should’ve given Magnum at least one Mind Crush for that!

“Yu-Gi-Oh! GX” (2004-07)

Magnum wasn’t the last person to use a card game as a marriage proposal. One sequel series later, an amazonian woman named Tania forces Bastion to marry her and have her kids if he loses their duel. After defeating and, ahem, “dueling him all night”, she rejects Bastion for being a weak duelist. The following day, Jaden challenges Tania and wins an extremely close match. It’s only when he claims victory that Tania reveals she was actually a tigress assuming the form of an amazon the entire time. We have no clue why a feline apex predator was attracted to and wanted to marry two seperate teenage duelists. But we’re positive her marriage to either duelist would’ve been the strangest relationship in the franchise.

“Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V” (2014-17)

During Yuya’s quest to qualify for the Arc League Championship, he has to face off against the intellectual Pierre on a quiz-themed Action field. This special setting prevents Yuya from using action cards unless he answers a trivia question. If that wasn’t bad enough, he’s forced to answer more questions every single time he tries to attack Pierre’s monsters. Yuya spends more time trying to solve visual puzzles and remember obscure facts than he does playing the card game. Now, we like a good trivia night as much as the next person. But we don’t want to spend nearly two full episodes of a card game competition anime watching the protagonist fail to answer random questions.

“Yu-Gi-Oh!” (2000-04)

One of the basic rules every duelist knows is that monster cards can’t destroy spell cards without a special effect. But try telling that to the Pharaoh. When he activates the mystical moon spell card on an ocean field, the water level rises. After his opponent Mako attacks, the field completely floods with water. The Pharaoh decides to fix this by attacking his own moon. This insane maneuver naturally gives him the edge he needs to come from behind and beat down Mako. The Pharaoh’s illegal gambit was so infamous that the official trading card game created a spell card called “Attack the Moon”, which allows you to do what the Pharaoh did...without cheating.

“Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's” (2008-11)

Throughout the last arc, Yusei tries to stop the masked villain Z-one from destroying New Domino City. It’s only during their final duel that the big bad reveals his true identity. The destructive duelist is Yusei from the future! Except, not really. It turns out Z-one comes from an apocalyptic future where humanity is on its last legs. He chooses to inspire the remaining survivors by getting plastic surgery and a personality implant to look and behave like Yusei. But after his insane plan fails, he doesn't bother changing himself back to his original appearance. Z-one’s convoluted origins raise more questions than they answer. The writers could’ve saved us a massive headache by just making him an evil future version of Yusei.

“Yu-Gi-Oh!” (2000-04)

After an intense semifinals battle with Marik, Joey is left in a comatose state. While unconscious, he dreams about dueling a young child in a championship match, for some reason. Despite remembering important dueling advice, he still loses to this unnamed brat. Joey’s duel was not only embarrassing, but it took the focus away from Yugi and Kaiba’s exciting matchup. The writers tried to justify Joey’s dream plot by having him repeat the advice he heard in the dream to Yugi. Still doesn’t fully explain why a top ranked duelist would lose in such a cringy manner!

“Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains” (2017-19)

AI is an intelligent computer program who wants to escape Yusaku’s duel disk. As such, he tries to convince a robot named Roboppy to spring him loose. When Ro attempts to free him in episode 4 of the english dub, they have an awkward interaction. But when you watch the original Japanese version, AI's excited tone, sounds of pleasure and raunchy dialogue makes it sound like they’re doing something far more adult than playing with circuits. This risque scene isn’t just a one-off occasion. Episodes thirteen and fourteen of the original show have AI and Roboppy sharing more raunchy moments with adult implications. The questionable nature of their relationship had us wondering if this show was really for kids.

“Yu-Gi-Oh!” (2000-04)

In the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yugi and Kaiba are forced to duel to see who gets the chance to fight Pegasus. They’re also fighting for the chance to save their kidnapped family members from their terrible fates. Just as Kaiba is about to be defeated, he announces he’ll fall from the tall castle they’re dueling on if Yugi wins. While the Pharaoh still tries to claim victory, Yugi steps in, takes control, stops the duel and accepts the loss. By the end of their match, we learn that, when it comes to card games, Kaiba is willing to die and the Pharaoh is willing to kill. The extreme escalation of stakes made it impossible for fans to see this show as an innocent card game anime ever again.