The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime was an incredibly bizarre show, but its weirdest season surprisingly never aired in Japan. This is shocking because the rest of the show aired in Japan before being shown internationally, but the company dubbing the anime in America commissioned a special season solely for international release. Far from one of the show's finest moments, this American season changed the series' winning formula in ways that are just baffling.

4Kids Entertainment dubbed Yu-Gi-Oh! in the US and for all that dub's flaws it was generally well received. While other 4Kids dubs of shows like One Piece completely changed the anime to censor it for Western audiences, Yu-Gi-Oh!'s over-the-top nature and reliance on card games to solve conflicts led it to fit well with 4Kids' campy style. This is part of what led the show to become popular in the US and also likely played a factor in 4Kids' decision to actually commission a whole new season of the show to air abroad. Fittingly for a season dubbed solely by 4Kids, it was much weirder than any other season of Yu-Gi-Oh! that had come before it.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters is Weirder Than Any Other Season

This season was called Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters, and it doesn't fit cleanly into the general timeline of the show. In it, Yugi and his friends win a trip to India where they stumble upon a mystical game in a magic temple. The game is similar to Pokémon in that the characters travel around various fantasy worlds collecting capsules that contain monsters in them that they can use. Each world has some sort of riddle to figure out or challenge to overcome and once this is completed the gang can move onto the next level. At the end of all that, Yugi and his friends discover that the events of the season were all orchestrated by Alexander the Great, who they must defeat in order to leave.

This is all extremely strange and barely even related to the general plot of Yu-Gi-Oh! itself. While the Capsule Monsters Yugi and his friends collect are all based on monsters from the Duel Monsters game, they are used for a much different purpose here. In addition, this season adds nothing to the general plot or arcs of the characters. While the anime did have other filler arcs like the Virtual World arc and Waking the Dragons, those arcs at least developed Yu-Gi-Oh!'s characters in intriguing ways. In Capsule Monsters, Yugi and his friends could be characters from an entirely different show without affecting the story.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monsters Never Aired In Japan

This is likely the reason why Capsule Monsters never released in Japan, as it was a Yu-Gi-Oh! season in name only. But while the season may not have a broader impact on the plot, it is still a fun watch for just how bizarre it is. Yu-Gi-Oh! fans owe it to themselves to watch the series' weirdest season, even if it never aired in Japan.