Although there are many Yu-Gi-Oh largely disconnected from each other, there is actually one surprising monster that connects most of them together: Kuriboh. The series’ most iconic monsters are generally mighty creatures like the Dark Magician and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but these monsters are often too distinctive to be used by many of the characters in the series. different series. This is especially true with the different tones and settings that each anime has.
While all of the Yu-Gi-Oh series are set in worlds where a card game can decide the fate of the world, beyond that, their settings are very different. Yu-Gi-Oh is initially set in the relatively mundane Domino City, but GX shifts the setting to an island school. Later series often move to a more futuristic setting, with 5D set in the cyberpunk version of Domino City and VRAINS taking place in a world with access to Sword Art Online-level virtual reality technology. or .Hack //. These different settings carry different tones, with series like the underrated Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal being brighter and more cheerful than the darker and coarser 5D. With all these different approaches, it means that monsters that have a lot of thematic weight in one anime won’t adapt well into another.
Kuriboh connects the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise together
To connect these disparate chains, a monster with endless adaptability like Kuriboh was needed. The fluff monster was used by Yugi in the first anime to defeat Pegasus and was popular enough to appear later in the series, even becoming Yugi’s Master Deck in the Virtual World section. At the start of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Yugi gave a version of this card called Winged Kuriboh to Jaden and the spirit of the card became one of Jaden’s close companions. Unfortunately, 5D’s anime shrunk the importance of Kuriboh, its kind of version, Kuribon, down to the deck of a minor character, Luna. On the other hand, Zexal introduced a bunch of new Kuribohs, from Kurivolt to the much more important Rainbow Kuriboh. Although the Arc-V sequel series didn’t actually have any Kuriboh in its anime, keeping its version exclusive to the Back to the Future-inspired manga, VRAINS revived the trend by introduced two different versions, Linkuriboh and Linguriboh. Even the Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens, despite having Rush Duels instead of Duel Monsters, introduced a version of Kuriboh called Kuribot.
Easter eggs like the various appearances of Kuriboh are an important aspect in tying the different Yu-Gi-Oh anime together despite their stark differences. And with Kuriboh’s cute and relatively simple design, the potential variations on the card are endless, making it the perfect card to adapt to many series. All of this has made Kuriboh and its derivatives arguably as iconic as much more powerful monsters like the Dark Magician, which is a bit of a surprise given its modest looks and attacks. .
The current series in the franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh Go Rush also features Kuribot, but doesn’t add any special elements to the prototype besides that. Hopefully as the franchise continues to expand into more series, they will keep the exciting trend of adding new Kuriboh monsters. It will further strengthen the connections between all the Yu-Gi-Oh anime, despite their vast differences.
