Season 5, Volume 1: Grand Championship

Yu-Gi-Oh: Grand Championship is a collection of fourteen episodes from the television series Yu-Gi-Oh!. These episodes are the first fourteen from the show's fifth season. The storyline centers around the KC Grand Championship, which is a massive duelist tournament of the world's best duelists battling for a chance to challenge Yu-Gi-Oh for the title of champion. For those who are not familiar with the world of Yu-Gi-Oh, it is a popular monster/magic card based game from Japan, which has also been represented in comics, television, film, and various forms of merchandise.

"Grand Championship" begins with Yugi and his crew trapped in the wilderness. They have no way to get home. Mokuba offers to give them a ride home on the condition that Yugi, Joey Wheeler, and Rebecca Hawkins join the Kaiba Corporation Grand Championship. Kaiba is hosting this tournament as a promotional event for the premiere of his amusement park, Kaiba Land. He hopes to bring the best duelists in the world together and let their fame work for him. Yugi reluctantly agrees to join.

When they first arrive at Kaiba Land, Mokuba shows the gang the best part of the place, the Kaiba Dome. It is a state of the art dueling facility. It has a super computer that duelists can use to test their skills. The computer uses strategies and cards of the top duelists, including Yugi. Unfortunately for everyone in the dome, an unknown hacker turns the computer against them! And when a young boy named Rick challenges the computer, they find out can't get out unless he wins.

Yugi takes control of the situation and plays for Rick. It is a tough battle because Rick only has dragon cards with a couple magic/trap cards. Under pressure, Yugi shows what kind of person he is and saves the day by turning a nearly impossible battle into a win. Continuing on, the episodes detail various key battles in the tournament, which include Joey facing a familiar face to the gang, Rebecca battling up and comer Leon Wilson, and more.

Throughout the tournament, there is another plotline going on. A mysterious man named Zigfried Lloyd (a metrosexual with a bad accent), who hates Kaiba with every fiber in his being, comes to the tournament to spice things up. He intends to ruin Kaiba and take the championship title. He has an overly dramatic back story that gives him a reason to hate. It is corny and the weakest aspect of the episodes.

In general, the content in this season five episodes have the same feeling as earlier seasons, although the duels are bigger and badder with more complex magic, trap, and monster cards. In other words, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s good-hearted, chivalrous, do-the-right-thing, and support your friends mentality is still rooted in the storylines. It makes for corny dialogue and half-hearted stories that are perfect for the show's target audience. This aspect is part of what I enjoy about the show. Overall, I thought the fourteen episodes in this collection were a lot of fun. The show has an enjoyable tone and it has been a guilt pleasure of mine for years.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. As for the quality, I do not have a lot of experience with animated features on DVD and I am not sure what the norm is. In respect to this set, the picture looks fairly clean with little trace of compression artifacts or visual distortions.

Audio:
The audio is in English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. The sound quality is acceptable and meets the level of expectation I would have for a film. Spoken dialogue is easy to hear, as well as the sound effects and music.

There is no support for subtitles or closed captioning.

Extras:
There are no extras included with this season set.

Final Thoughts:
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a phenomenon that has swept the world and found its way into games, comic books, novelty items, television, and film. This review covered the DVD set of the first fourteen episodes from the fifth season, which was dubbed "Grand Championship". This set of episodes details the adventures of Yugi and friends as they face off in an international duelist tournament. The episodes have the same tone as previous seasons and should appeal to those who enjoy the show.