Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's Is Blazing Toward Your Bookstore!

by Brigid Alverson
Reposted from MTV Geek [link]

Viz is kicking things up a notch with Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, a new spinoff of the classic Yu-Gi-Oh! series that features high-stakes duels fought from blazingly fast motorcycles. The first graphic novel in the series (which has also been running in Shonen Jump magazine) is due out on July 5 and will come bundled with a special Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Highlander trading card.

The original Yu-Gi-Oh! (the title means "King of Games") featured a nerdy high school student named Yugi who became an unbeatable gamer after solving an ancient Egyptian puzzle. In the first series, Yugi and his companions fight an assortment of villains using different types of games.

Yu-Gi-Oh! started in the Japanese Shonen Jump and was picked up by Viz for the American Shonen Jump; they also released it in graphic novel form, splitting it into several story arcs: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World. Despite the different titles, all these books were released as a single series in Japan, which totaled 38 volumes. Viz has also published Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, a spinoff of the original with a different creative team and different main character.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is yet another spinoff, set in New Domino City, where the inhabitants are all about Turbo Duel, a game fought from motorcycles called Duel Runners. Speed and action are the order of the day here, as hero Yusei Fudo, on his custom-built motorcycle, tries to battle his way from the suburban Satellite City to the big time. Says editor Mike Montesa: “In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, the classic card game of dueling monsters has evolved to now include ‘turbo duels’ waged in giant stadiums on fantastic racing motorcycles outfitted with built-in magical dueling equipment."

The creative team is made up of two Yu-Gi-Oh! veterans: Writer Masahiro Hikokubo was both a duel designer and a scriptwriter for the anime, and artist Masashi Sato worked as an assistant to the earlier Yu-Gi-Oh! creators.

YU-GI-OH! 5D’s © 2009 by Masahiro Hikokubo, Masashi Sato/SHUEISHA Inc.
© K. Takahashi
© NAS・TV TOKYO