Ash vs Yugi Review

Well here we are. The final episode of this, well I can’t call it a season since they don’t do those anymore, let’s just say year. And boys we are ending it on a doozy. Ash Ketchum vs Yugi Mutoh. The Pokémon Master vs the King of Games. Two of the biggest anime icons for any kid who grew up in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and spawners of two of the most profitable franchises on the planet.

To say I was excited for this would be an understatement. I was super excited for this one. partly because it’s just an awesome idea, but mostly because this is my childhood Death Battle episode. I think everyone has that one Death Battle episode that represents their childhood. This is the one for me. Only took them a decade and some change.

Oh I’ve had episodes with characters I grew up with, but never two in the same episode. I remember Digimon but I never watched much of it growing up, so Pokémon vs Digimon wasn’t quite it for me. There are a lot of episodes featuring two franchises I like, and even grew up with, but never one that perfectly encapsulated my childhood. Until now.

I remember when these two series were first brought over to the west. I was at ground zero for Pokémania and got swept up into the hype like everyone else, and I remember watching Yu-gi-oh every morning on Sky One before going to school and loving that too.

I loved these two growing up. Even though I’m not as into them as I used to be, I still have a soft spot in my heart for them and still enjoy the original works. And I mean the games and the manga not the anime. I love the cartoons too, but the original source material I just get into more nowadays. Especially the Yu-gi-oh manga, which is a very different beast than the anime.

For me these two, along with Dragon Ball and Cartoon Network, represent my personal childhood. So seeing these two together is something magical. Yeah, there’s no way I can go into this without any perceived biases. If this thing is even just ok, I will still give it a 10/10 on nostalgia alone.

It’s also an episode that I am very curious in how they’ll handle. This isn’t a traditional kind of battle. It’s basically an army battle like Bowser vs Eggman only with a much larger emphasis on the army.

Honestly I can see why they kept this for the finale. It’s a big episode and they always try to end each season/year with a bang. Last year notwithstanding for obvious reasons. Even though I think this still should have been episode 200, it does make more sense as a finale. I was perhaps a bit too harsh on Ruby vs Maka.

Ah well, hindsight is 20/20. But enough talk, let’s see how this duel played out.

Analysis

There was a lot to this analysis. Like no shit right. These two have an absolute metric ton in their arsenals from monsters to spells to different transformations. So they naturally don’t go into too much detail on them.

That has been something of a problem with a lot of the more recent episodes. They haven’t gone into as much detail when it comes to the calcs and feats as they used to. But this is one of those instances where I’m perfectly ok with them not doing so. Because they have so much in their arsenals that trying to cover everything in detail would tank the pacing.

They at least cover the most important monsters, abilities and feats in this, and everything else is given either a nod or a mention, so it never feels like anything was missed. Key word being feels. I’m sure some things were skipped for the sake of time, but it never came across like anything important was skipped.

For everything they had to cover the pacing is rock solid. The way it goes over each of Ash’s Pokémon was incredibly smooth with the transitions. It just went from one to another without stopping. It can be a bit overwhelming, but the info is thankfully never too complicated that it becomes difficult to follow.

Honestly for how much they threw at you I’m surprised I was able to follow along as much as I did. I normally need to double take on analysis to make sure I got everything. I did that here too for review’s sake, but I was surprised that outside of some little details and easter eggs I didn’t miss that much. It was amazingly easy to follow.

Granted that could be because I have seen both series, but I haven’t seen all of them. I stopped watching Pokémon after Johto and I’ve only seen the first Yu-gi-oh anime, and I was still able to keep up just fine. With how much was here it never got overwhelming. Even the black boxes, while more frequent, were never too much and kept to tangential arguments and supplementary information.

As far as structure goes it’s damned good. Despite primarily focusing on the power scaling side of things, it still made room for the story too. Going over both protagonists journey, their bonds of friendship and heart of the cards, making brief mentions of their ally’s, enemies and rivals. Even if it isn’t super in depth, they at least don’t skimp out on the stories which is nice.

I will say it would have been nice to get a bit more backstory. Ash doesn’t really have one so not much they could do there, but for Yugi it would have been nice to see more stuff from him prior to the Duel Monsters arcs. Because there was a lot of stuff in the manga the anime skipped over. Well aside from season 0 but that doesn’t count.

I won’t be too hard on them for that though. The card game is what the series is known for and the most important part of the debate, so it makes sense to just get to that right away. I just would have liked to see a little bit more of Yugi’s story, but what we got is still fine and gets the general idea of it across.

I do like how they put a big emphasis on teamwork in the analysis. Ash’s bond with his Pokémon and Pikachu in particular, and Yugi’s heart of the cards and partnership with Atem. It not only ties into the actual debate, but it’s also very important to both series.

I mean both franchises are about the power of friendship and the bonds you make with others. And merchandise but that’s the cynical way of looking at it. Having a section of the analysis be about that really helped hammer home what these two were all about. So in terms of nailing the characters it succeeded with flying Ho-ho colours.

Beyond that though, the analysis looks fantastic. The editing is top notch, far more so than usual in my opinion. Not that the editing is usually bad, it isn’t, but it felt like they went all out with it this time.

The effects, the little animations, the little details like the Pokedex entries, they did their best to try and make the analysis look as good as they could. Not only being pleasing to the eye, but also managing to capture some of the series styles pretty well.

Even the music is shockingly really good. I normally don’t talk about the music in the analysis because it’s usually just there. It’s inoffensive background noise most of the time, but here it’s excellent. It fits both series perfectly and it’s also got a lot of energy that gets you hyped up. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

But even ignoring the technical side of things, these analysis are stuffed with tons of references and call backs to both series. There is clearly a lot of reference to both series across both analysis and as a fan of both I absolutely loved it. Yeah, there’s some jokes at both series, but it never comes off as mocking or mean spirited. It’s just a bit of light hearted ribbing and it definitely feels like it’s coming from a place of love for both.

I mean we got the Pokérap, which actually integrated very well into Ash’s analysis, there were tons of jokes abot the 4 kids dubbing choices, they made a Yu-gi-oh abridged reference at one point. Like, they even made reference to the infamous 2000 card deck incident with new artwork of the Death Battle hosts.

They wouldn’t waste resources on this kind of stuff if they didn’t have love for these franchises. Suffice to say if you’re a fan of either you’re going to have a ball trying to spot all the little jokes and references.

I think my favourite part though is the endings for both. Not only do they wrap up both characters stories well but ending it with the To Be Continued splashes from both series was the most perfect way to end the analysis segments. Between this and Bowser vs Eggman I realise the best analyses are the ones with the fun flourishes they add to the end of these things.

This is the first analysis in a while that I can say is legitimately great. Not perfect, I do feel like it has some issues, but most are minor and/or easily forgivable. Really my only issue is that they kinds of give away the winner early on, but I have more to say on that in the results section.

I guess my only major complaint is that the running jokes were a little repetitive, but even then I never felt like they got annoying. Plus, they were perfectly on theme. Constantly shitting on 4 Kids and saying Yugi is a cheater are things the fanbases do all the time. So they just felt like another reference to each series and not the writer trying and failing to be funny.

Huh, my only major complaint wasn’t even much of a complaint. This may not be perfect, but it’s as close to perfect as analysis segments get. It got the information across well, it looked fantastic and it showed so much reverence to both series that should please any fans of either.

Fight Animation

When this animation started, I immediately knew it was going to be something special. Opening with a recreation of the intro to the Pokémon game was about as perfect an opening as you could get. not just because it’s a throwback to the Pokémon games, but also because that’s also how the anime started too.

Already it shows that they aren’t holding back, and as soon as you get the transition to 3D it just puts it into high gear and it gives it all it’s got. This fight fucking ruled.

First off though, I like that they established the rules for this fight before it began. They basically treated this as a real time battle and forewent the rules of both games. I think that was the most logical way of going about doing this. The one question people had going into this was how they were going to handle this given how the rules for both were incompatible.

Ignoring those and just making it a free-for-all was not only the easiest way of handling it, but also the one that allowed for a more fun watch. Which, yeah, it absolutely is. This thing is basically the army fight aspect of Bowser vs Eggman only with an even bogger emphasis on the armies.

There is no throwing of hands here. As fun as it would be to see Ash and Yugi punch each other in the face, it wouldn’t be accurate to who these guys are as characters. No, they pretty much focused entirely on their monsters, and boy are there a lot of them.

There is so much in this fight. So many monsters are thrown at you in one given scene that I you will never spot all of them on the first viewing. Not unless you pause it every five seconds. It does unfortunately have an issue where it throws so much at you that it can’t spend a lot of time on any given monster, but that’s the price you pay for having an army fight like this.

They do at least let all the major monsters have big moments. We get Pikachu vs Dark Magician which is the pairing they needed to show most of all, but we also get a bunch of other cool combinations too. Incineroar Izuna dropping Celtic Guardian, Summoned Skull zapping Charizard out of the sky, Kuriboh taking the blast of Sceptile, Lucario and Infernape all at once to protect Yugi.

There are so many cool moments in this and not all of them are in the foreground. There are also a few little background references they throw in there that are really cool to see. While this is one of those episodes that could have probably been longer with how much they had to cover, they do not waste a single second with the time they’re given. Every frame has something going on in it.

Both Yugi and Ash are also given equally great moments that show how determined they can be. The characterization is very strong here. I like the subtle ways they show off both each character’s personalities and even how the games work.

Ash riding on Charizard is not only a cool image, it also reflects Ash being more willing to ride into battle with his Pokémon. Which contrasts with Yugi who tends to stay back and let his monsters and magic do their thing. We see Yugi try to absorb Gengar which helps show the Puzzles abilities to contain spirits, which helps contrast with Ash’s Pokémon protecting him the same way like Krookadile does early on.

Even the strategies both are known for are depicted here. Ash is on the offence a lot more while Yugi plays more defensively, using more spells and traps to control the fight. It really did feel like I was watching Ash and Yugi actually duke it out.

The banter helps with this too. The dialogue is written almost like the characters were ripped out of their shows. Yugi explaining all of his plays really felt like a Yu-gi-oh thing, and Ash’s commands to his Pokémon and his determination was pitch perfect. There isn’t a lot of back and forth between the characters, but they absolutely captured their spirits in the dialogue.

The voice acting helps with this a lot. They brought in a bunch of guests to voice the monsters, too many to go over but everyone did fine with what little they had. I mean they’re just saying one word and grunting, there isn’t much to say really.

The stars though, Elsie Lovelock and Tom Schalk, I do have much to say about. Lovelock is a damn great Ash. Not only does she sound similar enough to the two main actors from the anime (though she leans more towards Sarah Natochenny than Veronica Taylor) but she captures Ash’s youthful energy, spirit and his connections with his Pokémon extremely well.

Then there’s Tom Schalk. This episode has fully convinced me that this man can do no wrong. His voice work is some of the best in Death Battle history. His impression of Dan Green is so on point you wouldn’t be remis if you thought they actually got him in.

I was actually disappointed when I found out Little Kuriboh wasn’t brought in to do Yugi, but I can kind of see why after seeing the episode. Having a more comedic take on the voice would not have been a good fit for this. Schalk had the gravitas the fight needed, and the fact he played both Yami and Yugi perfectly is awesome to see.

These two gave some of the finest performances we’ve seen in Death Battle. From the smaller more emotional moments to the big epic ones, they both did phenomenally. The way they sell those big epic moments made them feel all the more impactful. Which is great since the fight isn’t lacking in those. Both characters have their chances to go big in this and it feels big when they happen.

But even beyond the fight being fun for pure spectacle, there’s just a lot of little touches in it I love. While the arena is clearly taken from Pokémon, I think it’s ripped straight from Sword and Shield, there are advertisements for Kaiba Corp and Kame Games in the background to tie it to Yu-gi-oh. Which raises the question of how Yugi’s grandpa could afford the advertisement, but I don’t think you’re meant to think about it too deeply.

One thing I also noticed is that Yugi is the first one to lose a monster. Dark Magician goes down when he uses Dimension Sphinx to redirect Ash’s attack. This is clever for two reasons. One is that it ties into the end where he brings him back, showing Yugi having that ability, but it also ties into the rules of Duel Monsters.

In DM you often sacrifice cards, either to activate an effect or to summon other monsters. While Death Battle didn’t follow the strict rules of the game for this battle, this moment could be a subtle reference to how the card game works. It is also possible that it was just Pikachu taking Magician out, but Yugi needed to sacrifice Magician to activate the trap so it still works as a sacrifice.

There are a few subtle details like that. Again with how much is thrown at you it’s impossible to see everything on your first viewing. But despite how much is shown, they obviously didn’t show everything.

If you read the YouTube comments because you hate yourself, you’ll see some comments saying they didn’t include one monster or another, which in some cases is an understandable disappointment and in others is just flat out stupid. More on that in the result.

But they did at least focus on the monsters that were most important to the combatants. For Ash they obviously gave him Lucario, Greninja and Gengar to take advantage of his different powers, and they included several of his most important partners like Incineroar, Squirtle and Bulbasaur. Even the 30 Tauros got involved.

Yes, we didn’t get to see Dragonite or Sirfetched, or Lapras, but those aren’t as important to Ash as, say Charizard. Charizard is one of his most iconic Pokémon, if there was anyone he was going to ride into battle, it was going to be him.

As for Yugi, ok I’ll admit it sucks not seeing Exodia. He should have been included given he was the first boss monster Yugi ever summoned. However, he only used Exodia once and then famously lost him. It does make sense he wouldn’t have him in his deck.

And while Obelisk and Ra are only given cameos, Slifer is used in the actual battle. Which makes perfect sense since that’s the god card most associated with him. It’s the one he used in Battle City, and is usually the one Yugi busts out in most crossover fighters he appears in. It would have been nice to see more of the other two, but focusing on Slifer is the better call.

Then there’s the music. Millenial Monsters is an absolute banger of a track. It’s a high energy rock tune that perfectly matches both series and as so much energy that it’s hard not to get hyped while listening to it.

I do think it leans a bit more into Pokémon than Yu-gi-oh though. it’s got some Pokémon leitmotivs in the beginning and not much for Yu-gi-oh, but it’s still a very energetic and highly enjoyable track to listen to.

The kicker, the singer for this was Jason Paige. Aka the guy that sang the original Pokémon theme song. I never want to hear the argument that Death Battle don’t put any effort into their episodes. Not when they’re pulling shit like this.

Look at me, I’ve gone on and on already and I haven’t even talked about the animation quality. This was the first 3D fight done by the sprite animation team and they fucking knocked it out of the park.

The more cartoony style fits both series like a glove and allows for much more expressive animation. The animation can be a bit stiff in places, but for the most part it’s very smooth. The effects works is fantastic and there’s a use of 2D effects that look really damn cool. When Dimension Sphinx and Horahkty you immediately feel their presence with how big they are.

Actually the whole Horahkty thing made me giggle a bit. When she came out and Ash did the “who’s that Pokémon?” line, replete with the background matching those segments, I had the biggest smile on my face. They really did go all out with this fight.

But my favourite part of the whole fight was the ending. Or rather the entire final act. There is a lot I love about it so I’ll give you the most important parts in order. First having Ash take out the puzzle was a great way of giving him some kind of victory, but it also meant that it was Yugi, not Atem, that actually won the fight.

I love this. Not only because it means the guy with his name in the title is the actual true winner and not his other half, but also because it shows Yugi’s growth in the anime. As the final arc showed, Yugi didn’t need Atem to win his battles for him. He could do that on his own and I love that Death Battle showed that.

Second, both characters are put into a corner before making a comeback. Yugi losing Atem and being at low life points before summoning his magicians and Horahkty and stopping Ash with Swords of Revealing Light, then Ash coming back with his Z-move as he’s about to get blown away, it’s just like the shows where both are backed into a corner before clutching a victory.

Also, Ash turning into his other forms from past seasons during the Z move pose was a beautiful touch. It was a lovely bit of fan service and I admittedly teared up a bit at it. it was enough to literally make a grown man cry.

But then there was the kill. Yugi didn’t win simply by overpowering Ash, he used Magical Cylinder to redirect Ash’s attack back at him was genius. Yugi is a far more tactical fighter so having his win come from a smarter play rather than overpowering his enemy was a far more fitting ending. Also it being Magic Cylinder was perfect given how many Yu-gi-oh players have been screwed over by that one card. It’s like Chance Time in Bowser vs Eggman, if you know it you know the pain.

The final shot was also the chef’s kiss on the whole thing. Ash turning to stone was expected. I mean how else were they going to have him die, but I love that he was posed like he was still fighting meaning he went out doing what he loved. Which is simultaneously touching and absolutely heartbreaking too. Right in the childhood.

And Yugi walking off with his famous thumbs up pose, with The End styled after the old Pokémon anime endings, oh it’s just so good. Considering the fight opened with a Pokémon anime callback, ending with one was the perfect book end for it. Plus, since they already made the reference in the analysis it doesn’t feel like a reference won’t get since it was properly set-up.

Guys, this fight is amazing. Honestly, I have no complaints. It’s about as perfect as it could be. My only wish is that it was longer to allow more time to do stuff, but if my only critique of the fight is there isn’t more of it, then that’s not much of a criticism now is it.

This is so close to beating Bowser vs Eggman. In some ways it does. The littler details are done much better, and having more focus on the army was something I wanted more of in Bowsegg. But I prefer the more story driven approach in this, so Ash vs Yugi only just barely misses out on the top spot for me. But trust me, it’s a razor thing difference.

Result

So Yugi was ultimately the winner. The reasoning was actually pretty simple and straightforward. Ash was more experienced, but Yugi had better strategy and stronger monsters and abilities. I agree with this although there are two issues I have.

One is that I don’t like that Yugi was put at multiverse levels. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware that are multiversal arguments for the Yugiverse. But, from what I can gather, those come from future series that are only tangentially related to the original. I am glad they used the sequel series to give better context, but I feel like they should have used more of it as evidence since what was provided doesn’t really support it.

I read the text they gave, and it doesn’t support Horahkty creating a multiverse so much as it was explaining the visual opening of Dark Side of Dimensions. Whether Horahkty created the multiverse is never explained, there’s no smoking gun that makes it irrefutable.

They do try to justify it by comparing her, and the god cards, to cards with lesser star values. Since some lesser valued cards have shown feats that can destroy universes. That is better, but I still have issues with the reasoning.

The star ratings on Yu-gi-oh cards aren’t indicicative of the actual canon power of the cards. They’re meant to be indicative of their strength in the actual game itself. For example, Time Wizard is a two star card compared to Celtic Guardian being a four star card since CG has a much higher attack score. Despite the fact that Time Wizard can manipulate time while Celtic Guardian is just some guy with a sword. You see what I mean.

You can’t take the star ratings too literally since what each monster should be canonically capable of isn’t always reflected in them. So while yes that elemental hero card being able to destroy a universe should put the god cards and Horahkty in the same range since they are canonically stronger, I don’t think that’s enough to put them in the multiversal range.

Universal+ is probably a much safer bet. That’s where I would realistically put them based on the evidence they gave. Honestly its probably better to make the argument that Ash and Yugi are roughly even in raw power at their best, but Yugi just has more powerful options and hax for Ash to deal with. That is what most people were arguing with this from what I saw.

Again though, there are arguments for Yugi being multiversal, I just don’t think the one provided in the episode is particularly strong. Still the reasoning is still understandable, it’s explained well, and it is internally consistent so I can’t complain about it too much.

I will say that I do find some of the counter arguments made in the YouTube comments to be hilariously dumb. People are complaining they didn’t give Ash Arceus or Mewtwo despite neither being his. I know it’s just salty fan boy nonsense, but I just find it funny. I even saw one comment saying Death Battle clearly didn’t watch the shows because they didn’t give Yugi the Blue Eyes. Fucking what?

You have to love that even in an episode with a verdict most agreed on, with a reasoning that was the general consensus, people still find ways to bitch about it. You just can’t win in vs debating guys.

Conclusion

I think it’s safe to say I loved this episode. The extra time they allowed this episode definitely shined through because this is one of the best episodes of the show. There is so much care attention put into this. It was clearly a passion project for everyone involved.

As someone who grew up with both and still has a special place in my soul for them, I loved every second of this episode. it’s nostalgic in all the right ways without coming across as cloying or condescending. They knew the assignment.

I will admit there is a strong bias with this one. There is so much reverence and love shown to both series that it’s impossible for someone like me not to love it. All the little easter eggs and in jokes are probably cringe to someone who never grew up with them, but as someone who did I just had the biggest smile on my face throughout.

I didn’t even get all the references, and I still got sucked into it. If anything I just learned a little bit more about two series I loved. I know I always say that if you’re a fan you might get more out of an episode, which isn’t always right, but this is one that I can confirm that if you are a fan you’re going to absolutely love this.

Even ignoring that and just looking at the episode objectively, it’s great. The analysis was one of the best we’ve seen in ages, the animation, acting and music were all top tier, and the vs debating stuff was handled well, despite some minor grievances I had with it.

This is easily the best episode of the season, and one of the best finales. I will say it’s pretty obvious this was originally the 200^th episode, but I’m actually glad it wasn’t. Nothing that came after would be able to match it. Keep it for the end and go out on a high note.

The question remains though, does this top Bowser vs Eggman as the best episode? No, but it’s close. I still think Bowser vs Eggman is better due to the more story driven fight and the tighter verdict, but Ash vs Yugi is so much fun and does so many other things right I can see some people preferring it. For me it’s the second-best episode, which is still damned good.

Not much more to say. I loved the episode, this year was great, I’ll see y’all in the next one.

Score: 10/10