is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

3-D

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

based on the ''

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' magazine between September 1996 and March 2004. The plot follows the story of a boy named Yugi Mutou, w ...

'' series. It was produced to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

-produced series, ''

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese anime series animated by Studio Gallop based on the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' manga series written by Kazuki Takahashi. It is the second anime adaptation of the manga following the 1998 anime televisi ...

'', and features the main characters from the original ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' anime series, ''

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'', also known in Japan as , is an anime spin-off and sequel series to the original ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' anime. It aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 6, 2004 to March 26, 2008, and was succeeded by ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's''. ''Yu-Gi ...

'' and ''

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's is the second main spin-off of the ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' franchise, succeeding ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'', in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump and the 15th anniversary of V Jump. The series aired in Japan from April 2, 2008 to Mar ...

''. It was released in Japanese theaters on January 23, 2010. An English-language version of the film was produced by

4Kids Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...

. The digital cinema developer and distributor

Cinedigm Cinedigm Corp. is an American entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Cinedigm's businesses encompass digital cinema, streaming channels, content marketing, and distribution. History Early years Cinedigm Corp was founded ...

screened the film in selected stereoscopic 3D theaters in the United States. In the United Kingdom,

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

released the film in selected stereoscopic 3D cinemas, and followed this with a

Blu-ray 3D The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and DVD release. The film was also released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD. The film earned over in Japanese theaters, and also sold well on DVD, both in Japan and the United Kingdom. Film critics, however, criticized it for its limited scope of audience, claiming it was strictly marketed to children or fans of the series.

Plot

Yusei Fudo The following is a list of characters from the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's'' anime series. Names refer to the 4K Media English version, with the original Japanese names presented in the descriptions where available. Some international releases feature a ...

ponders the state of New Domino City, Jack Atlas and Crow Hogan cheer him up with the idea of riding on their Duel Runners. As they ride, a mysterious Turbo Duelist called

Paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

challenges Yusei to a duel. Yusei summons his Stardust Dragon but Paradox seals it inside a card and disappears with it. They later discover an article that shows a mysterious battle in the past of

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

that Yusei knows did not happen in history before. Compounding the situation, New Domino City is vanishing. As a result, the Crimson Dragon appears, giving Yusei's Duel Runner the ability to travel through time. In the past,

Jaden Yuki This is the list of characters in the ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX'' animated series. The official English anime and the English manga by VIZ Media have changed character names. Main characters ; : :The main protagonist of the series. He is described as an e ...

is attacked by evil versions of stolen monster cards in

, including Stardust Dragon. As Paradox prepares to kill Jaden, Yusei and the Crimson Dragon arrive and protect him. Afterward, Paradox flees to an earlier point in time. Jaden tells Yusei that he was pursuing Paradox, who stole his friends' cards. Yusei explains to Jaden the situation, and they decide to work together. Jaden pulls out a computer and uses the Manjome foundation's database to pull up an article, which states that Paradox killed Pegasus, using Stardust and other famous dragons. Suddenly, Jaden's Neos card disappears like Stardust Dragon did, and this era starts to vanish as well. Yusei and Jaden travel back even further in time to try to prevent Pegasus's death. Years earlier,

Maximillion Pegasus The ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' series features an extensive cast of characters created by Kazuki Takahashi. The series takes place in a fictional city in Japan called Domino City, in which most of the characters that appear in the series originate. Many plot ...

is hosting a duel tournament in Domino City, which

Yugi Muto Yūgi is a Japanese given name. It may refer to: People * Yugi Sethu (born 1964), Tamil actor, director and screenwriter Characters Given name * Yugi Mutou, the main character of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' * Yugi (''Tenchi Muyo!''), a character in ''T ...

is attending with his maternal grandfather Solomon. Paradox uses his newly acquired monsters to attack the event, killing Pegasus, Yugi's grandfather, and several bystanders, but Yugi survives. Yusei and Jaden arrive, and the Crimson Dragon transports them and Yugi 30 minutes back in time before Paradox's attack, in order to stop him, as Pegasus' premature death would drastically alter the course of history. After learning about Paradox's actions, Yugi decides to join them by letting the Pharaoh take over. Jaden notices his Neos is back and proclaims that right now, all their cards are safe from being destroyed by any alteration already done to time. The trio then confronts Paradox, who reveals that he comes from a dystopian future far beyond Yusei's in which the world lies in ruins and nothingness, and claims that the only way to fix it is to eliminate Duel Monsters from history. However, the three heroes protest that by doing so, all the future events and people associated with Duel Monsters will be erased as well, and they challenge him to a duel. By combining the powers of their key monsters, Yugi, Jaden and Yusei defeat Paradox. After the duel, the three say goodbye to each other and promise to meet again someday. The latter two return to their respective time periods. New Domino City returns to normal, and Yusei returns to his own time, optimistic for what the future holds.

Cast

Development and release

In July 2009, ''Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time'' was first announced through

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's magazines as a short film to be screened at the Jump Super Anime Tour to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ''

'' anime series. It was revealed in the November issue of ''

V-Jump is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine, focusing on new manga as well as video games based on popular manga. The magazine's debut was in 1993 by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. History A prototype magazine called '' Hobby's Jum ...

'' magazine, that the animation would be a 3-D film. The film's imagery, however, was originally produced in 2D, and then was converted to 3D by the company Qtec. The 3D effect is emphasized in scenes where

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

are used, such as in the scene when the Duel Runners and the cards appear. The film's official website released a 65-second trailer in September 2009, and a 139-second trailer in December. On January 21, 2010, before the film's release, a guidebook titled ''Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th Anniversary Animation Book'' was publisher under

's V Jump Books line. It contains an interview with

Kazuki Takahashi , known professionally as , was a Japanese manga artist. He made his serial manga debut in 1986, and is best known as the author of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', published in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1996 to 2004. The manga spawned a popular trading car ...

—the author of the original ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' manga—and information about the film's story and characters and was accompanied by a poster of the film. The film was released in Japan on January 23, 2010; those who attended the premiere receiving a promotional Malefic Red Eyes Black Dragon card. The film received an encore screening in Japan which was held on February 20, 2011, which included ten extra minutes in 2D. ''Bonds Beyond Time'' was released on DVD and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

on June 15, 2011 by a partnership between King Records,

Marvelous Entertainment (MMV) was a multinational corporation that produced animation, music, video games and television series. MMV is known for its involvement in the ''Story of Seasons'' series. They merged with AQ Interactive in 2011 and became Marvelous AQL; the ...

, and

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

Staff

Members of the staff from the different ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' television series were involved in the film production. Shin Yoshida, the film's screenwriter, worked on ''

'', ''

'', and ''

''. Masahiro Hikokubo did the

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

of the duels for the film as he previously did for ''GX'' and ''5D's''. Kenichi Takeshita, the director of ''5D's'', went on directing ''Bonds Beyond Time''. The same production companies for all the anime,

Studio Gallop , sometimes credited as , is a Japanese animation studio founded on December 13, 1978, by former Mushi Pro members. Works TV series 1980s *''Touch'' (1985–1987) (production assistance; animated by Group TAC) *''High School! Kimengumi'' (1985 ...

and

Nihon Ad Systems , NAS for short, is a Japanese anime production and character merchandising company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the advertising agency Asatsu-DK. The "Ad" in its title is an abbreviation for "Animation Development". Along with animation studios ...

, were involved in the film. The film's music was composed by Yutaka Minobe and the Wall 5 Project, both also responsible for 5D's songs. The main theme music of the film is "Makemagic" by Atsushi Tamura's band

Jealkb Jealkb (ジュアルケービー ''juarukeebii'') is a Japanese visual kei rock band made up of seven members, all of them comedians including London Boots Ichi-go Ni-go's Atsushi Tamura. History Their debut single ''Metronome'' hit number 1 o ...

English localization and release

During

's quarterly conference call in March 2010, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Khan said they are "participating in a brand new ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' 3D movie," implying that 4Kids would produce an English-language version of the film for a Western release. A 20-minute preview for the English version of the film was shown at San Diego Comic Con 2010, and an American release date in early 2011 in select 3-D theaters was announced. The film's debut in the United States occurred at an event in New York on February 23, 2011. It included demonstrations of

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' trading card game, the anime's voice actors, a costume contest, and benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Metro New York.

showed the film in selected American stereoscopic 3D theaters on February 26 and 27, 2011, and on March 5 and 6, 2011. The version shown in the U.S. features a recap consisting of an additional 10 minutes of animation, compared to the original Japanese release. Manga Entertainment holds the license to distribute the film in the United Kingdom. It was released in selected stereoscopic 3D cinemas on May 14 and 21, 2011, and the viewers gained a rare card for each ticket bought. The film was released on Blu-ray 3D and DVD on July 25, 2011; the release contains the English language and original Japanese versions. On July 15, 2014, it was released by New Video Group in North America on Blu-ray. Like the TV series, the movie is heavily edited and localized to be strictly aimed at elementary school aged children in Western countries. The musical score is completely redone and all the sound effects are completely replaced with brand new American made sound effects and there are none of the original Japanese musical score and none of the original Japanese sound effects in the English dub, and the sound effects in the English dub of the movie that are thought to be the original Japanese sound effects are really the American sound effects created by 4Kids from the original Japanese sound effects or made to sound like the original Japanese sound effects in the English dub. The cards are re-designed to the same format as the edited English dub of the TV series and any visible text that is in Japanese or English is erased or obscured due to FCC regulations like in the TV series's edited English dub.

Reception

''Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time'' debuted at number six in the Japanese box office charts, earning over in its first week from around 124 theaters. It grossed $2,017,928 in Japanese theatres, making it the 125th-highest-grossing film released in Japan in 2010. The DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film reached number two in the best-selling lists of their respective media. In the first week, the DVD edition has sold 5,488 copies, while 4,653 copies of Blu-ray has been sold in the same period. It was the film's UK distributor Manga Entertainment's second-best selling anime release of 2011. A representative of Manga Entertainment said, "I think

t was T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

because it was available in Asda and Morrisons, came with a free rare card and was stupidly cheap on heshelf". When it was broadcast by

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

in 2014, the film earned a 0.3 percent television viewership rating. Andy Haley from UK Anime Network praised the English version and stated it is "arguably preferable even to the original Japanese audio". Haley praised the film "for keeping its focus and plot progression impeccable tight", which made it "an intense, non-stop experience". However, Haley said the film was created to increase the sale of cards; he commented it has "plot holes that even kids will see through as it serves only to bring its three characters together at one time and nothing more". Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Phelim O'Neill affirmed it has "a very limited style of animation" and that it may be exciting for children but for anyone over ten, "it'll be hard to see this as anything other than a shouty, tacky advert for things you'll never buy". Chris Homer of The Fandom Post praised the film's animation and the matching up of the three protagonists. He criticized it and stated the time travel and the antagonists motives are not well developed, "if at all about why he wants to get rid of what is basically a card game". ''

Total Film ''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...

''s Jamie Russell wrote it is difficult for a non-fan of the series to appreciate. Bridget Fox, writing for '' Neo'', also said it is "not for non-fans" but that it is good entertainment with "its frenetic pace, the capable animation, and its refusal to overcomplicate matters".

References

External links

*
Official Japanese website2nd Official English trailer & Official English website
* {{Gallop (studio) 2010 films 2010 anime films 2010 3D films 3D animated films 2010s Japanese-language films 2010s fantasy adventure films 2010s children's fantasy films Animated science fantasy films Crossover anime and manga Japanese crossover films Animated films based on animated series Anime films based on manga Gallop (studio) Japanese 3D films Animated films about time travel Anime and manga about time travel