Yu-Gi-Oh!

'Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters' (遊☆戯☆王デュエルモンスターズ Yūgiō Dyueru Monsutāzu) is the second anime adaptation of Kazuki Takahashi's manga series of the same name. Produced by Studio Gallop, the anime ran for 224 episodes between April 2000 and September 2004 on TV Tokyo in Japan.

Dubbing History
An English dub of the series was originally dubbed in Singapore for the South East Asian market. Recorded at Voiceovers Unlimited and Yuan Production Holdings in Singapore, this dub was produced for Odex Productions. The dub featured an extremely limited cast of only six known voice actors. It's not known exactly how many episodes were dubbed, though it is known to go as high as 80 episodes. An interview with Brian Zimmerman mentions that they were only contracted to do three seasons of the series, meaning it was possibly 144 episodes.

In 2001, 4Kids Entertainment obtained the merchandising and television rights to the series from Konami, producing an English language version which aired in North America on Kids' WB! between September 29, 2001 and June 10, 2006, also releasing in various countries outside of Japan.

The adaptation received many changes from the Japanese version to tailor it for international audiences. These include different names for many characters and monsters, changes to the appearance of the cards to differentiate them from their real-life counterparts and various cuts and edits pertaining to violence, death and religious references to make the series suitable for children. The Japanese sound effects were replaced with American sound effects, and the background music was changed to melodramatic synth music. The opening and ending themes were changed from songs by various popular recording artists to an instrumental song done with a synthesizer.

A separate "uncut" DVD release was commissioned between 4Kids Entertainment and FUNimation Entertainment, featuring a new adaptation that is more consistent with the original. Each uncut DVD contained 3 episodes available both in an uncut, unedited English dub and the original Japanese format with English subtitles, and 3 DVDs were released, for a total of 9 uncut, uncensored and unedited episodes. A fourth DVD containing episodes 10-12 was finished, but after a series of constant delays the DVD was listed as unavailable. The reasons for the cancellation of this dub aren't clear, though 4Kids President Al Kahn has stated the uncut releases were "put on indefinite hiatus" for interfering with the edited DVD sales. Lance Heiskell, a FUNimation representative, has noted legal rights as the reason for cancellation, although he was unable to expand on it.

Recurring Characters
4Kids Uncut Dub (Episodes 1-12)