Anime universes of Yu-Gi-Oh! And Dragon ball surprisingly similar. From the origin stories of how similar Yugi and Goku are, to how Yugi powers up a stronger version of himself before a ‘battle’ as a Super Saiyan. And now, it looks like there’s one more similarity that could be added to the ever-growing list, that of Yu-Gi-Oh! perfectly recreates DBZ’s most iconic anime moment.
In Dragon Ball Z’s Frieza Saga, Goku and some Z Warriors find themselves on Planet Namek fighting the evil emperor Frieza. While Goku trains his spaceship all the way to Planet Namek and proves powerful enough to challenge Frieza, he is still not strong enough to kill him. However, after Frieza murdered Krillin, Goku’s best friend, right in front of him, and then threatened the life of his son, Gohan, Goku went mad and unlocked an entirely new form: the Super Saiyan. At that point, Frieza knew he was done with his job, so he decided to give himself an ace. Frieza fires a blast of energy at the planet’s core, aiming to destabilize the planet and cause it to explode. Frieza then performed some psychological warfare against Goku by telling him they only had five minutes before the planet exploded – and Frieza held up all five fingers in front of him to indicate that that was exactly how long Goku was alive.
Weevil used the same methods as DBZ’s Frieza against Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh!
In Yu-Gi-Oh! episode 5 (written by Junki Takegami, Masashi Sogo, and Shin Yoshida, and directed by Kunihisa Sugishima), Yugi is on the island of Duelist Kingdom during Pegasus’ Duel Monsters tournament. Yugi is determined to win, as Pegasus has stolen his grandfather’s soul, and defeating him is the only way to get it back. The only way to fight Pegasus is to beat all the other opponents first. So Yugi challenged one of the best on the island: Weed. Weevil recently won the regional championship and is clearly a contender to win this tournament. However, Yugi decided to challenge him first anyway, since the two of them had some unfinished business. On his trip to the Duelist Kingdom, Weevil threw Yugi’s Exodia cards into the water to weaken his deck. Now, Yugi wants to prove that he doesn’t need those cards to defeat Wee – although throughout the match, Weevil didn’t go easy on him.
After playing his cards brilliantly – as one would expect from a champion – Wet fell into a Yugi trap, where each passing turn only made Were’s monster stronger while Yugi could do nothing to stop it. Weevil tells Yugi that after a total of five turns, his monster will complete its transformation and Yugi will be defeated. When Weevil said this, he raised his hand and extended all five of his fingers, just to emphasize that was exactly how much time Yugi had left in the tournament. Apparently, this scene is reminiscent of how Frieza taunted Goku on Planet Namek.
Frieza’s five-finger gesture is absolutely iconic, not just for Dragon Ball fans, but the entire anime fan community — and beyond. So when a character like Weevil (which alone is a sleazy, crafty villain comparable to Frieza) makes the same gesture with the same meaning, it’s easy to see how similar those two scenes really are, whether they make sense or not. Either way, it’s undeniable that Yu-Gi-Oh! perfect reproduction Dragon ballmost iconic anime moments.