TOKYO — A new season of “Yu-Gi-Oh!” is set to premiere in 2024, following the show’s characters competing in a dangerous Balatro tournament.
A trailer for the upcoming season features scenes of Seto Kaiba creating a deck featuring all gold cards, Maximillion Pegasus crafting The Arm boss using ancient Egyptian magic, and Joey Wheeler becoming friends with a real life version of the Baseball Card Joker.
“Sorry, Kaiba. There are no non-spade cards in my grandfather’s deck!” Yami Yugi shouts in the trailer before throwing down a Flush House for 1.4 million chips, obliterating Kaiba’s deck.
According to director Nobuhiro Kondo, the season is being put together really quickly.
“We want to stay current and capitalize on trends, so Balatro makes perfect sense for the new ‘Yu-Gi-Oh’ season. Also all the writers and I are addicted to the game, so it’s the only thing that has been occupying our minds since it came out,” Kondo explained. We asked him five additional questions and he just kept saying, “One sec. Sorry, just one second.”
Despite trend-chasing, Kondo insists the upcoming season will bring in new and old viewers.
“No spoilers, but there’s a scene later in the season where Yugi is playing an all-face-cards deck and then runs into the boss that disables face cards that I think is some of the most heart-wrenching work we’ve ever done on the series,” he added. “The stakes of Balatro are already intense, but usually you don’t die when you lose. Sorry, if you’re American, I mean you don’t get sent to the Shadow Realm.”
As of press time, the ratings board is locked in debate with the network’s lawyers over whether the season should be TV-MA on account of its potential to introduce children to dangerously addictive roguelikes.
