In its popularity, Yu-Gi-Oh! has become a staple series known for its card game tournaments but at its start, the manga once confirmed its own version of Dragon Ball. Known for having a darker twist to its story upon completing the Millenium Puzzle, the game was only but an unfinished puzzle that a young boy hoped to solve. However, this puzzle game possesses more than just the summoning of the All-Mighty Shenron.
Created by Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! first debut in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1996, a year after the end of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball in 1995. The manga ran until 2004 and was followed by the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 0, which covered the manga’s darker storyline but was later changed to the card dueling tournament in Yu-Gio-Oh! Duel Monsters. The manga and Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 0 focused on the Shadow Games, a sinister power granted to the one able to solve the Millineum Puzzle. This power is granted through the possession of an evil Pharoah Atem who grants the user the ability to create deceptive games based on divine judgment.
Yu-Gi-Oh chapter one “The Puzzle God”, starts off with the introduction of the Millineum puzzle, an ancient game hailing from Egypt. After working on the puzzle for nearly 8 years, Yugi believes the game can grant one wish like the Dragon Balls. The seven Dragon Balls from Dragon Ball are known to possess the ability to summon Shenron, a magical dragon who can grant any wish. The Millennium Puzzle’s “wish” is more like a curse that allows the user to cast out judgment on evil by the use of the Shadow Games. Both entities serve as important objects or even plot devices in their respective series but those aren’t the only similarities they share.
Yugi’s comparison isn’t completely mistaken given how both the Millenium Puzzle and Dragon Balls hold magical powers that can be gifted to others. Just like how one must collect all seven Dragon Balls in order to be granted one wish, the Millenium Puzzle must have all of its pieces to unlock the power of the Shadow Games. Yugi experiences this after finally solving the puzzle only to notice a piece was missing. As if fate, Katsuya Jonouchi (aka Joey Wheeler) returns the missing piece to Yugi’s grandfather who gifts the piece to Yugi which allowed him to finish the puzzle. The Millenium Puzzle and the Dragon Balls also share magical deities that hold the key to granting such magical power but where Shenron acts as a grantor, the Pharoah Atem acts as a possessor with the bonus gift of “dark wisdom and power”.
In terms of numbers, there are in total seven Millienum items just as there are seven Dragon Balls. After encountering Shadi a disciple of Anubus with the power of the Millenium Key, Yugi learns that there are more items with the ability to create the Shadow Games. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters also kept the origin of the seven Millenium items (puzzle, key, eye, rod, necklace, scale, ring.) but instead of granting powers of the Shadow games, they granted the user various abilities to help in tournaments. Yu-Gi-Oh! shares many similarities to Dragon Ball but it still manages to remain completely different with the use of the Shadow Games. Yugi’s childlike wonder in comparing the Millineum Puzzle to the Dragon Balls before understanding its power is what makes the comparison wholesome in how he uses the Shadow Games to protect his friends.
