YF --> ANIME --> Capsule Monsters

THE LOST SERIES

At the dawn of 2006, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans were preparing themselves for the grand finale of Yu-Gi-Oh!, with the first episode of Dawn of the Duel debuting back in October. However, in February 2006, something happened which shocked the entire fanbase.

A small stub on a website, first published in December 2005, was brought finally to the attention of fans. It told of a board game known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters that was to be released by Mattel in 2006. However, the wierdest bit was that it mentioned a "Season 5 12-episode mini-series". This sent shockwaves around the internet - the possibility of ANOTHER Yu-Gi-Oh! series? But then as February continued, something else occured.

An online user calling himself Angryhamster reported seeing a brand new episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! on the Irish television channel, RTÉ Two. What's more, the openning credits revealed a subtitle that no one had ever seen before - Capsule Monsters. It seemed that the lost series of Yu-Gi-Oh! had finally hit television. But it didn't stop there.

Capsule Monsters had received absolutely no public advertising, not even on the official website. Therefore, absolutely nobody in the entire world had seen episodes 1 and 2! In fact, it was pure luck that Angryhamster had come across episode 3. Episode 4 aired a couple of days later, before the series was mysteriously pulled...

But what was this mystery series? And why did it receive absolutely no prior advertising? Well, historically, it was not unusual for this Irish television channel to show programs before others (they were well known for showing Episode 224 months before it was shown publically!) but this time they had gone too far. 4Kids immediately issued the withdrawal of this series from the channel, and no more were shown. But it was too late.

The Capsule Monsters secret had got out, and 4Kids was in a bit of a tangle. No one was supposed to know about Capsule Monsters until later in the year, but now practically the whole Yu-Gi-Oh! fanbase had heard of it! This was a pickle, but 4Kids couldn't just keep saying "No comment". They had to get something out!

That was when the Capsule Monsters DVD first appeared on Amazon.com. The DVD art was very poor, clearly only quickly thrown together, and showed the Pharaoh in his regular stance and clothes with the Dark Magician standing next to him. At the time it was believed that this would be the DVD which would hold the series, or at least the first volume of one. But that was not true.

THE MOVIE

A couple of days later, many started to realise that Amazon had slightly edited the image on their website. It was exactly the same as before, except the words "The Movie" were placed underneath the title. So it was a movie now, was it? 4Kids were staying pretty silent about the whole thing, leaving fans to fill in all the gaps themselves.

Then a little while later they released yet ANOTHER DVD artwork (which you can see to the left). This was much better artwork which definitely pleased fans. It was then revealed that the DVD would be released on the 23rd of May 2006.

Not much was heard of Capsule Monsters until early May, when fans were eagerly awaiting the release of Capsule Monsters. However, Capsule Monsters wasn't on anyone's mind right then, as that was the day Episode 224 was going to be shown. That is where I come in.

I turned on the TV in the early morning preparing to record episode 224 for the site, when I came across something interesting. I checked out what episode Sky One would show the next Sunday, you know, out of curiosity. And this is what I saw:

New. Getting Played: Yugi and his friends set off on holiday but soon get into peril. When their plane crashes they become lost in the world of capsule monsters. How will they escape?

I published this breaking news on the YF forum, and within days it was all over the internet! Janime, Wikipedia, they all mentioned somewhere about Sky One's new line-up. It had spread like a bad rash! I prepared the site for the release of Episode 1 on the 21st, and that's when something new came in. A lot would happen in those three days.

On the 21st, the Episode made it to the site. But, on the 22nd, 4Kids lived up to a promise they had been making for a while. At 7PM ET, then broadcast the whole movie on their website as a one-time special. The next day, the DVD was released with the final artwork. >>>>>

And that brings us up to now. The incredible shockwave that shook the Yu-Gi-Oh! world will go down in history under the name of: CAPSULE MONSTERS.