Yu-Gi-Oh!/Episodes

Season 1 (2000-2001)
This season follows Yugi Mutou, a timid, kind-hearted boy, who embarks on a journey with his friends - Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Téa Gardener - to Duelist Kingdom, a tournament on the island of the same name, to free his grandfather from imprisonment by Maximillion Pegasus - the season's main antagonist. While on the journey, he begins to learn more about the Millennium items, including his own Millennium puzzle, in which contains a 5,000 year old spirit that takes over when he duels. Joey enters the contest with Yugi in order to obtain the prize money to pay for his sister's eye operation. At first an inexperienced duelist, he works his way up to the tournament's top tier with Yugi. It also tells the story of Seto Kaiba - a ruthless, skilled duelist and company owner - who was ranked as the top duelist until Yugi defeated him. Plagued by his defeat, his company's image suffers and his brother gets kidnapped, forcing him to travel to Duelist Kingdom to retrieve him from the same imprisonment Yugi's grandfather faces. The last ten episodes deal with the aftermath of Yugi's duel with Pegasus, featuring two episode sagas: "Legendary Heroes" and "Dungeon Dice Monsters".

Season 2 (2001-2002)
This season follows Yugi and his friends - Joey, Tristan and Téa - to the Battle City tournament on a quest to prevent the spread of evil by Marik, the season's new antagonist. The competition organized by Seto Kaiba in an attempt to gather more powerful cards, including the three Egyptian god cards - one of which was given to him by Ishizu Ishtar, as part of her plan to stop her brother from succeeding. Marik plans to use the three cards to take over the world with the help of his servants, known as the Rare Hunters. He uses them to capture Yugi's friends and Kaiba's brother, to lure them out to duel for their Egyptian god cards. After taking out Marik in the form of Mai, Serenity and Duke join the others at the finals, which take place on Kaiba's company blimp flying over the city. There, they learn the truth about Marik and his origins as well as the hidden abilities of the coveted Egyptian God Cards.

Season 3 (2002-2003)
This season picks up where season two left off, with the characters taking an unexpected detour to Noah's home base. There, Yugi and the others are transported to a digital universe, created and controlled by Noah, where they are forced to duel the Big Five in order to escape with their mind in their own bodies. The second half of the season focuses on the resumption of the Battle City tournament finals, where the final four duelists, Yugi, Joey (Katsuya), Kaiba, and Marik (Malik), fight for the championship title as well as the end of the Shadow Games.

Season 4 (2003)
This season introduces a new enemy into the fold, Dartz, who uses the magic of the Orichalcos stones and his three servants – Alister, Rafael, and Valon - and to bring chaos to the world. Yugi, Joey, and Kaiba face off against the three, using the three legendary dragon cards from the monster world. Meanwhile, Dartz slowly acquires KaibaCorp as well as the souls of Yugi, Joey and Pegasus.

Season 5 (2003-2004)
Episodes 199-210 of this season are actually a twelve-episode mini-series commissioned, produced, and edited by 4Kids Entertainment titled Capsule Monsters that originally aired after the series finale. The miniseries is officially considered to be part of Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 5, taking place between the events of the Grand Championship and Dawn of the Duel. This is the only Yu-Gi-Oh! saga not to see a release in Japan, despite the fact that it was animated by Studio Gallop, the studio that animated the rest of the series.