List of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episodes (season 1)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Kingdom Yu-Gi-Oh! Legendary Heroes Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters
Season 1 DVD cover
Country of origin	Japan
No. of episodes	49
Release
Original network	TV Tokyo (Japan) Kids WB (U.S.)
Original release	April 18, 2000 – April 3, 2001
Season chronology
Next → Season 2
List of Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes

The First Season of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, based on the manga by Kazuki Takahashi, premiered in Japan on April 18, 2000, and concluded on April 3, 2001, on TV Tokyo. An English adaptation of the series was made and premiered in the United States on September 29, 2001, and concluded on November 9, 2002, on Kids WB. It was renamed Yu-Gi-Oh! due to the fact that the first Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series was never released outside Japan. The season was directed by Kunihisa Sugishima, and written by Junki Takegami, Masashi Sogo, and Shin Yoshida. The original version features vocals from Shunsuke Kazama, Hiroki Takahashi, Hidehiro Kikuchi, Maki Saito and Kenjiro Tsuda as the main characters. The English adaptation features vocals from Amy Birnbaum, Frank Frankson, Wayne Grayson, Dan Green, Chuck Powers, Sam Regal, Eric Stuart and Dwayne Tan as the main characters.

It follows Yugi Mutou, a timid, kind-hearted boy, who embarks on a journey with his friends - Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda, and Anzu Mazaki (renamed to Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Téa Gardener in the English adaptation) - to Duelist Kingdom, a tournament on the island of the same name, to free his grandfather, Sugoroku (renamed Solomon Moto in the English adaptation) from imprisonment by Pegasus J. Crawford (renamed Maximillion Pegasus in the English adaptation) - the season's main antagonist. While on the journey, he begins to learn more about the seven Millennium items, including his own Millennium Puzzle, in which contains a 5,000-year-old spirit that takes over when he duels or when he is pressured. Katsuya enters the contest with Yugi in order to obtain the prize money to pay for his young sister, Shizuka's (renamed Serenity Wheeler in the English adaptation) eye operation. At first an inexperienced duelist, he works his way up to the tournament's top tier with Yugi. It also tells the story of Seto Kaiba - a ruthless, skilled duelist and company owner — who was ranked as the top duelist until Yugi defeated him. Plagued by his defeat, his company's image suffers and his young brother, Mokuba gets kidnapped, forcing him to travel to Duelist Kingdom to retrieve him from the same imprisonment Yugi's grandfather faces. The last ten episode deal with the aftermath of Yugi's duel with Pegasus, featuring two episode sagas: "Legendary Heroes" and "Dungeon Dice Monsters".