Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 17, 2017

Is it possible to have post traumatic stress disorder from simple acts of parenting? When I opened Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions’ Blu-ray case, a Yu-Gi-Oh! card came fluttering out and floated to the floor, and suddenly I was transported back well over a decade to when my oldest son was enamored of the franchise and a lot of my hard earned cash was going toward purchasing him “rare” cards. Rather incredibly, there are hard to find Yu-Gi-Oh! cards which are on the secondary market these days for literally thousands of dollars, and I pity the current day parent who has to shell out bucks like that to satisfy their whining offspring. Also kind of incredibly, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions was created at least in part to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of this venerable enterprise, and while the film didn’t exactly light the American box office on fire, it at least managed to crack the Top 10 in Japan, if only for a little while. That may indicate that perhaps a bit of the bloom is off this particular rose, but for anyone who has ever had to “believe in the heart of the cards”, counting Yugi Muto out at any point is probably not an advisable opinion.

There’s a bit of a bittersweet quality running through Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, at least for those who have been with the franchise for a while. The film isn’t exactly a model of innovative plot twists (has any Yu-Gi-Oh! enterprise been?), but the first thing longtime fans will notice is that long followed characters are at least a bit older, with Yugi clearly in his late teens now, and with both Yugi and many of his friends preparing to graduate from high school. While the film relies on events depicted in the original series, my hunch is even those who really haven’t paid that much attention to the series’ storyline won’t have that much trouble following what’s going on, since (as is mentioned above) most Yu-Gi- Oh! outings, including this one, feature a basically bare bones plot that serves simply as a foundation to get the characters to the all important duelling sequences.

In what was a supposed cap to Yugi’s long quest to deal with the Pharoah Atem, the original series seemed to tie everything up in a more or less neat package, though of course Kaiba wasn’t exactly thrilled with how things turned out. Kaiba therefore probably unsurprisingly turns out to be the genesis behind the (again) minimalist plot dynamics that set things into motion. As the film opens, that all important Millennium Puzzle may have been found, albeit buried, and Kaiba is on his own quest now to unearth it. As should be expected, Kaiba’s efforts aren’t completely successful, and pieces of the puzzle are scattered, with Yugi (again unsurprisingly) soon being handed one of them.

Without spoiling what are some putative twists in Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, suffice it to say that the apparent (and traditional) villain, Kaiba, is only part of the problem that Yugi and his cohorts encounter in the film, and oddly, that may be one reason why from a conflict standpoint it seems slightly frayed. While writer Kazuki Takahashi does an actually pretty admirable job of presenting older and ostensibly wiser versions of these now iconic characters, there really isn’t any really visceral suspense in the film, and so it relies on what has admittedly been the franchise’s calling card (sorry), the battle scenes. But without any underlying feeling that (generic) conflict is going to amount to much, even these sequences can feel slightly detached.

That detached feeling is probably nowhere more evident than in the supposed final (yeah, right) showdown that caps the film and which seems to last for an inordinate amount of time. Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions actually clocks in at a little over two hours, a perhaps unwieldy length for a film built upon relatively simple foundational blocks, but when one battle sequence stretches to more or less a third of that running time, some might accuse the creative staff of a bit of padding. (This padding feeling is evident before any actual battles break out, with actually kind of funny, overly extended, moments given to ridiculous little elements like characters running here or there.)

Still, there’s undeniable emotion on hand here, at least for those who have followed the adventures of Yugi for years (decades?) now. The film’s story development actually manages to tie up a couple of loose ends that were still unaccounted for at the end of the actual series, and while dialogue is often fairly silly in tried and true Yu-Gi-Oh! fashion, the characters have a bit more depth than might be expected. There are supposed denouements involving several of the key characters, especially after the epic final battle winds down (guess who wins?), but of course a teasing finale clearly leaves things open for yet another round of Duel Monsters. The more things change, the more they remain the same. . .

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Starz / Anchor Bay and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The upgrade in design aesthetic from the original series is quite notable, and arguably even improves on some of the other feature films (Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Bonds Beyond Time), with often quite bold primaries filling the frame, and with a number of "sparkly" special effects that seek to indicate dimensional portals being opened and closed. Some of the backgrounds are quite beautiful, and many of them tend to be more detailed than is typically seen in at least some anime. Line detail is strong and precise throughout, and best of all there aren't any issues with anomalies like banding or macroblocking.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in Japanese and English (with members of the "vintage" voice cast). The disc is authored so that the Japanese track automatically includes (non removable) subtitles, while the English track offers optional English SDH subtitles. (A member here who evidently got an early copy private messaged me complaining about so-called "dubtitles", for those of you who care about that.) You can't really go wrong with either of these choices, as the baseline mixes are to my ears virtually identical, and both provide a glut of surround activity courtesy of the recurrent duels that accrue. Yu-Gi-Oh! has always tended to be a pretty "noisy" franchise, and that proclivity continues with this film, though even with an array of sound effects and score ping ponging through the surround channels, dialogue (such as it is) is typically very well prioritized. Occasional sound effects like the huffing and puffing when those characters mentioned above are involved in bizarrely long lasting treks to and fro can sound a little hokey at times, but elements like that have always been part of the fun of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range extremely wide on both of these problem free tracks.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Favorite Moments with the Cast (1080i; 3:30) offers some brief snippets with the English voice cast, who are actually discussing the original series more than this particular film.


• Q&A with Dan Green (1080p; 5:35) is an engaging chat with the voice actor who portrays Yugi.


• Q&A with Eric Stuart (1080p; 6:40) does similar service for the voice actor portraying Kaiba.


• Show Us Your Cards! (1080i; 3:35) is a gallery of fans displaying their favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! cards.

As mentioned above, there was a Yu-Gi-Oh! card tucked inside the case. My particular copy had Obelisk the Tormentor, but I wouldn't put it past the creative crew behind this franchise to have included different cards, just so that (to quote another popular anime) you'd have to collect them all.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Longtime fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! will find more than enough here to enjoy, even if the film seems overlong and at times surprisingly talky and even padded feeling. There are some narrative hurdles that the film never quite overcomes, but the battle scenes are fun and seeing the characters in a different context will probably delight many devoted viewers. Technical merits are strong, and for franchise aficionados if for no one else, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions comes Recommended.