New Yu-Gi-Oh Anime Debuts First Trailer

Shueisha’s Jump Festa 2020 convention is well underway, and it’s here that many of the franchises coming out of the various projects in the magazine announce big updates or releases. It was confirmed earlier in the year that Yu-Gi-Oh would be releasing the newest iteration of its anime franchise sometime next year, and now Konami has showcased the first full look at the next entry in this massive popular franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens. Shown off during Konami’s stage presentation for the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, this new series will be a celebration of the anime’s 20th Anniversary.

You can check out the first trailer for the new series below, and you’ll immediately see many of the drastic changes and overhauls coming to the anime. Most interestingly, is the new designs for the cards themselves — which just might be shifting the way the current real-life trading card game is played.

Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens is the seventh iteration of the anime franchise thus far, and is currently slated to premiere April next year in Japan. The series will star Hiiro Ishibashi as new central protagonist Yuga Odo, and he’ll be wielding the Seventh Road Magician. The series also stars Taku Yashiro as Tatsuhisa Kamijo, Natsuki Hanae as Gakuto Sogetsu, and Tamori Kusunoki as Romin.

Nobuhiro Kondo (Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation) will be directing the series for studio Bridge with Toshimitsu Takeuchi overseeing the scripts. Konami has teased that this new series will not only be celebrating the franchise’s 20th Anniversary but will be changing things. Maybe that’s why there’s a quick glimpse of the classic monster Blue-Eyes White Dragon?

Yu-Gi-Oh! was originally created by Kazuki Takahashi for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and ran from September 1996 to March 2004. The series follows Yugi Mutou, a young boy who solves an ancient puzzle and is possessed by the spirit of the Egyptian pharoah. Being skilled at deadly games, the Pharoah goes on to create and solve problems for Yugi based on deadly games of chance.

Two anime adaptations were created for the series, but the one most fans will recognize is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Duel Monsters was the first arc in the story to focus on the “Duel Monsters” card game and was the first season licensed for an English language release by 4Kids Entertainment. The first season of the series, which fans often dub as “Season 0,” has such deadly games of chance with horrible consequences that fans could not believe it was a part of this series at first.