Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 3 Collection

3 stars for the continued adventures of Yugi Muto and pals.

Directed by Hatsuki Tsuji (Samurai X: The Motion Picture), this collection features the entire 3rd season of Yu-Gi-Oh! and comprises episodes 98-144. It includes the Enter the Shadow Realm arc and also concludes the Battle City storyline.

While the gang are en route to the Battle City Semi-Finals on KaibaCorp Island, the KaibaCorp blimp suddenly changes direction after being hacked. They are taken aboard an unknown ship emerging from the ocean and thrust into a digital world.

There they are greeted by “the Big Five”, Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nezbitt and Leichter. They are the former board of directors of Kaiba’s company, KaibaCorp. Following their defeat in Duel Monsters at the hands of Kaiba (Eric Stuart – Pokemon) and Yugi (Dan Green) they have had their bodies destroyed and their brains uploaded to a digital world.

They have been brought to this digital fortress to carry out their desire for revenge by Noah, a mysterious child who has an unhealthy interest in Kaiba and his brother Mokuba (Tara Jayne). The Big Five are looking to escape the Virtual World and to that end they need new bodies, which they hope will be provided by Yuki and four other members of the team.

There are plenty of battles to be had, as the team splits up to take on each of the Big Five under the new rules, with each person nominating a “Deck Master” to fight by their side. They also face the challenge of working out who Noah is and why he has captured them.

Purists will be happy to hear that after this little side story we do return to the business at hand, the Battle City contest, in which the semi finals see Yami Yugi, Kaiba, Joey and Yami Marik fight it out to decide who is the overall champion and to prevent more of them being taken into the Shadow Realm.

To be perfectly honest, as someone who has never played the game and so doesn’t really understand the rules, I enjoyed the first half of this series far more than the other parts that I have seen. I suspect however that any true fans will find it a bit tedious and want to get back to the endless number crunching that is the duelling.

In that respect they shouldn’t be disappointed, there are some epic battles, one of which spans six whole episodes, which is pretty impressive.

At 7 discs this collection is not for the faint hearted, but is obviously a must have for fans of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 3 Collection is available to order online now and will be released on 05th October 2015.