Yu-Gi-Oh!: Millennium World, Volume 5

March 15, 2007
The third Yu-Gi-Oh! series (after Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, see review above) finally delves into the past of Yugi's "other" self, Yu-Gi-Oh, the spirit of an Egyptian pharaoh that melded with Yugi after he solved the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi and his usual group of friendsJonouchi, Hiroto, and Anzutravel into the distant past in search of the pharaoh's true name and the secrets behind the millennium items while the Pharaoh relives his battle against evil necromancer Bakura. In Volume 5, it's revealed that they are also in a shadow game with the modern Bakura, the past playing out as a role-playing gamewith everyone's lives at stake. As the Pharaoh and Bakura maneuver their past selves to win, Yugi fights his own shadow game for the lost name. As in previous Yu-Gi-Oh! series, the battles here go back and forth a lot, each side coming close to defeat before pulling off a hat trick and regaining lost ground. The various threads of worlds within worlds can prove challenging to follow, as can the complicated rules of the card games, but Yu-Gi-Oh! readers are used to that by now; it would be hard to read this serieslet alone this volumewithout the prior ones. It is interesting to get some long hinted at secrets revealed as the series wraps up, and to see Yugi and Yu-Gi-Oh acting separately. Takahashi's distinctive and detailed art adds a lot to the action of an otherwise standard but popular battle manga.Teresa Copeland, Yuma Cty. Lib. Dist., AZ

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.