[Dr Kain]

And thus brings an end to my non-filler Yu-Gi-Oh! viewing. Yes, I decided to set DOMA and Kaiba Grand Prix aside so I could watch the Memories arc since I had just finished the manga last week and wanted to compare them with a fresh mind. In fact, this is the first time I have rewatched the memories arc since reading the manga version and my god, to say it was accurate is like comparing Pepsi to Mountain Dew. It just doesn't work.

As an adaptation, the memories arc in anime form is terrible. The Diadhanks are some of the dumbest things ever (and I have no idea why they felt they needed to have them), but the inclusion of Kaiba is even worse. Kaiba's story was pretty much over when he destroyed the Duel Tower on Alcatraz Island, so there was no need for him to be here, especially since he wanted nothing to do with the past. Secondly, I really do not like the changes they made such as turning Bobasa into pointless filler. He somewhat had a purpose in the manga even if it was confusing. Here, he was around to waste time since he has no connection to being Hasan at all.

I also do not care for how the Dark RPG suddenly effects the real world and the new stuff they added in before Zorc is actually resurrected. It just dragged the stuff out needlessly. Now one think I did like done better in the anime was Atem having the gods have a nice fight with Zorc. That was pretty cool and made sense. Of course, the design of Zorc just looks down right ridiculous in anime form. IN the manga, you never really saw him all that well whereas in the anime, he is just an overly excited demon and it really makes him look dumb.

The inclusion of the Ring Wraiths make no sense either, nor does having Yami Bakura taking over Thief Bakura. They also seemed to turn Akhenaden into lacky with the way Thief Bakura just comes back and takes the spotlight away from him.

Now another thing that does make a little more sense is having the duel between Seto and Atem before the big battle with Zorc just from a time frame manner. Granted, it just feels more epic being the final battle of the arc, which is why Takahashi probably did it that way.

And then we come to the Ceremonial duel. I still think Kaiba was unneeded here, but at least he is there the entire time instead of just standing out in the desert out the blue when everyone emerges from the tomb at the end. The duel itself is incredible to watch, but like the duels of Battle City, it could have been an episode shorter. They took the last seven chapters of the manga and made them into five episodes, which is way too many. At least the duel feels as epic as it should even if drawn out.

Once again though, there is one thing I like better that the anime does, and that is the epilogue during the end credits. It makes the ending feel a little less rushed than it did in the manga, but I still would have rather had like maybe a One Year Later epilogue or something.

The only part of memory arc that feels off to me is the duel between Jounouchi and Bakura that seems to just stop and then is only mentioned again later when Bakura says they were interrupted.

Outside of that, it is my favorite arc even though I'm quite sure Takahashi could have developed Mana and Kisara a little bit more. Nevertheless, I am actually quite glad it is a short arc since Battle City was such a huge one.

As for the anime version, I really just do not understand why they felt the need to change so much compared to the manga either. Sure, Duelist Kingdom and Battle City were altered, but not to the extent of Memory World.

Oh, and the animation got really sloppy, but it seemed to be heading that way at the tail end of Battle City and continued throughout DOMA. I remember scenes when Yugi's head was almost as wide as his shoulders.

I would really love for them to one day go back and "Brotherhood/Ultimate" this series again with a straight up adaptation from the manga. They could easily start it off with two stories per episode for the earlier stuff (or one full episode for multipart stories) and then start going into full 20 minute stories once they reach Death T and Monster World. THere would be no need for multi-part duels either, as most of them outside of like the big ones could be done in a single episode, so the series could easily be done in probably around 100 episodes give or take a few.

With that said, I have to say, overall, I did not enjoy the series as much as I used to and I really think it has to do with both the animation and reading the manga now. In fact, this was my first time rewatching the entire series after reading the entire manga as the last time I rewatched the whole series, Shonen Jump was publishing the pre-Duelist Kingdom stuff. As a whole, I give the anime a 6/10 when I compare it to the manga and an 8/10 if I ignore it. Of course, now that I have read the manga in full and in order it is going to be hard to do that, sadly.