Twenty years ago, when I was a few months shy of turning 13, I engaged in my usual Saturday morning ritual. That ritual consisted of a big bowl of cereal and tuning in to some of my favorite animated shows. The one show I made sure to never miss wasYu-Gi-Oh!Kazuki Takahashi’s card-battling anime hooked me for several reasons,especially the Duel Monsters matches, which only got more intense as the series went on. Some ofYu-Gi-Oh!’s best duels.
Both of these came to a head during the “Battle City” arc of the anime, pitting protagonist Yugi Muto (Dan Green) against an organization of card thieves known as the Rare Hunters. The episode I was watching, “Master of Magicians, Part 3”, was the culmination of a battle between Yugi and the Rare Hunter Arkana (Sam Riegel), who utilized an evil version of Yugi’s signature card, Dark Magician. To beat Arkana, Yugi ended up pulling out a Dark Magician Girl…and needless to say, I was smitten. It wasn’t just the design, it was what she represented, and it wouldn’t be until I was older that I figured out what that was.
The Dark Magician Girl Was a Major Staple of ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ – Meaning I Saw a Lot of Her
I would start to see more of Dark Magician Girl in future episodes ofYu-Gi-Oh!, asshe tends to show up in nearly every major story arcfollowing Battle City. When Yugi and his friends are pulled into a virtual world and forced to duel for their lives, Yugi’s friend Tea (Amy Birnbaum) uses the Dark Magician Girl as part of her deck because Yugi said the spellcaster reminded him of her. Considering the anime hinted that Yugi and Tea crushed on each other, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel seen…especially since I was starting to collect actualYu-Gi-Oh!cards at the time.
Dark Magician Girl would also play a major role in the “Waking the Dragons” arc, as her spirit literally reached out to Yugi to ask for his help in stopping a beast known as the Leviathan from wrecking the world. But the Dark Magician Girl’s biggest role had to be in the “Dawn of the Duel” arc, which finally revealed the history behind Yugi’s alter ego Yami Yugi. Not only was Yami’s true name revealed to be Atem, but he also befriended a girl named Mana who physically resembled the Dark Magician Girl. Again, I could relate because I was starting to develop a crush on a friend in my band class, though nothing came of it.
My Crush on the Dark Magician Girl Signified My Desire To Be More Adventurous
It wasn’t until I was nearing the end of high school that I finally realized why I was so attracted to the Dark Magician Girl:her very presence signified adventure. Yugi tends to summon her in his most intense duels, especially when it comes to Battle City; during his duel with the mind-controlled mime Strings, he summons Dark Magician Girl as part of a plan to topple the Egyptian God Card Slifer the Sky Dragon. Later she plays a key role in helping him beat Marik Ishtar’s Winged Dragon of Ra, winning Yugi the Battle City Champion and cementing his title as the “King of Games”.But it’s her first appearance that takes the cake for me, especially the stakes. At the beginning of their duel, Arkana locks himself and Yugi into a death trap where the loser will have their legs cut off by a raging buzzsaw.
(In the English dub it’s changed to a “dark energy disk”, meaning that I was in for a surprise when I read the manga.) The fact that Dark Magician Girl literally saves Yugi from the brink of death stuck with me, and I distinctly remember telling my parents “If I ever get in trouble, the Dark Magician Girl will save me!”
‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ Gets New Anime Series in 2025 to Celebrate 25th Anniversary
The shorts will stream for free.
I think that declaration was less about escaping the jaws of death and more about seeking some genuine thrills. My adolescencewasn’t all that exciting:I made it to school on time, I got mostly good grades, and since I was the oldest of three kids, I had to take care of my siblings. I was also a very shy kid.
Apart from getting the right answer in school, the only time I lit up was when I was watchingYu-Gi-Oh!Seeing Yugi win duel after duel, and often under some chaotic circumstances, made me wish I could have that sort of adventure. More to the point, I wished I had someone special to share it with. It wasn’t until college that I started to take some risks, and surprisingly,Yu-Gi-Oh!was involved in it.
‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ and the Dark Magician Girl Were a Huge Part of My College Experience
In college, I had to get used to living on my own — while I didn’t have a car until sophomore year, I still had to get used to navigating the campus, not to mention finding classes. What made it betterwas that I found a group of friends, and we all connected overYu-Gi-Oh!Not only did we love the anime, but weplayed the card game whenever we could. After years of painstakingly collecting and trading cards, I finally had aYu-Gi-Oh!deck that was as close to Yugi’s as possible, including a copy of the Dark Magician Girl (and I managed to win more than once!)
When one of my friends' birthdays rolled around, it happened to be the same time asYu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time,which united three generations ofYu-Gi-Oh!heroes long before time travel and multiverses became the rage in other film franchises were in theaters. The only theater that was playing it was fairly far from my campus, but I decided to take the risk and drove out, and it was one of the best days of my life. Maybe I’ll never date the Dark Magician Girl, but in some small way, she did inspire me to get out and live a little.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monstersis available to stream on Amazon Freevee in the U.S.
