Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions blu-ray review

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-Ray Review

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions (English)
遊☆戯☆王 THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS (Japanese)

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Logo

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-ray ReviewRelease: Japan: May 2016, USA: Jan 20, 2017, UK: Feb 1, 2017

DVD, Blu-ray/digital HD:  June 27, 2017
Director: Satoshi Kuwabara
Genres: Animation, Adventure

Writer: Kazuki Takahashi (creator)
Stars: Shunsuke Kazama, Kenjirô Tsuda, Dan Green, Eric Stuart

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions Blu-Ray Review

Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimension is the movie that was needed to truly bring Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters to an end, allowing Yugi, his friends, and also ourselves to finally come to terms with Atem’s passing. This movie, while quite different to the series and manga that spawned it, plays well to the nostalgia crowd; the English dub, the versuion we watched, especially excels at this. Watching this movie for the first time is like bumping into an old friend you’ve all but forgotten and if you have fond memories of watching Yu-Gi-Oh! as a child you’re in for an emotional ride.

The blu-ray I got came with a digital download code for the movie and the Obelisk The Tormentor card which is just awesome!

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions is a sequel to the original story from Kazuki Takahashi, taking place a year after Atem departed to the afterlife.

screenshot001A year after the departure of the Pharaoh, Yugi Muto and his closest friends are in their final year of High School and are talking about what they will do in the future. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba has commissioned an excavation to retrieve the disassembled Millennium Puzzle from the ruins of the Millennium chamber. The item had previously housed the soul of his rival, Atem, whom he hopes to revive in order to settle their score.

screenshot005It turns out that when the Pharaoh disappeared, a sect of people living in another dimension were granted the creative power of the Plana (or Prana). These followers of Shadi Shin, former wielder of the Millennium Item known as the Quantum Cube, sought to form a new world free of hate, but their leader Diva (or Aigami) becomes consumed by hate in the process, attempting to kill Yugi and destroy his Millennium Puzzle to prevent the Pharaoh’s possible return, which would sap Aigami’s power completely.

The excavation is interrupted by Diva, who faces Kaiba in a game of Duel Monsters and steals two pieces of the recovered Puzzle. He keeps one fragment and gives the other to his sister Sera who passes it on to Yugi Muto, aware that he was the host of the Pharaoh.

screenshot003Diva, under the alias “Aigami,” forges a “friendship” with Yugi. He takes interest in Yugi’s friend Ryo Bakura, whom he believes is responsible for the death of his father-like mentor, Shadi. Using his Quantum Cube, he transports Bakura to another dimension. Bakura apologizes and explains that the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring had been responsible. The two are interrupted by Mani, who has become warped by the evil energies of the Millennium Ring.

screenshot004Kaiba has a computer rebuild the Millennium Puzzle and discovers the last two pieces are missing. He abducts Aigami and approaches Yugi, so he can have the two take part in the showcasing of his updated Duel Disk virtual reality technology.

screenshot008He intends to duel both Aigami and Yugi, while gambling their pieces of the puzzle. However, Yugi is furious with Aigami over what he did to Bakura and insists he duel him instead, which Kaiba agrees to.
Yugi defeats Aigami, resulting in Bakura’s return to reality, and while dueling Kaiba, Yugi re-completes the Millennium Puzzle to demonstrate that the spirit of Atem is no longer inside it.

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Aigami becomes corrupted by the incredible evil powers of the Millennium Ring and duels both Yugi and Kaiba. Kaiba sacrifices himself during the Duel and makes a final plea for Yugi to call forth Atem.

screenshot012Yugi succeeds in doing so, by remembering that mastering Duel Monsters you have to believe in the heart of the cards, and he and Atem defeat Aigami with ease. Atem and the Millennium Puzzle then fade away, and Kaiba returns to reality.

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screenshot014The film ends with Yugi and his best friends seeing Téa off at the airport as she goes off to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer in New York City while Kaiba uses his technology in conjunction with the Quantum Cube to transport his consciousness to the Netherworld, where he approaches Pharaoh Atem, sitting on his throne, who responds with a knowing smile.

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Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, provided to us by 4K Entertainment, Inc., is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Starz / Anchor Bay Entertainment and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The upgrade in design aesthetic from the original series is quite notable, and arguably even improves on some of the other feature films (Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Bonds Beyond Time), with often quite bold primaries filling the frame, and with a number of “sparkly” special effects that seek to indicate dimensional portals being opened and closed. Some of the backgrounds are quite beautiful, and many of them tend to be more detailed than is typically seen in at least some anime. Line detail is strong and precise throughout, and there wasn’t any issues with anomalies like banding or macroblocking.

The release features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in Japanese and English (with members of the original voice cast, Eric Stuart and Dan Greene most notable). The disc is authored with both the Japanese track and the English dub track and offers optional English SDH subtitles. I was really excited to see this movie with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. However the subtitles they used for the Japanese version are the same as the English version meaning that if you want to watch it in Japanese you’re not going to be able to tell what the characters are actually saying in Japanese. Bummer. The basic audio mixes are virtually identical, and both provide a ample ampunt of surround activity courtesy of the recurrent duels that happen all throughout the film. Even with an array of sound effects and score ping ponging through the surround channels, dialogue is typically very well prioritized. Occasional sound effects like the huffing and puffing can sound a little hokey at times, but sounds like that have always been part of the fun of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range extremely wide on both of these problem free tracks.

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Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD from Lionsgate. Keep an eye out for these Special Features that come with it:

  • Show Us Your Cards Featurette
  • Dan Interview Featurette
  • Eric Interview Featurette
  • Cast’s Favorite Moments Featurette

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