Shadow Realm

The Shadow Realm, in the English-language version of the second series Yu-Gi-Oh! anime (titled Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in Japan) and several Yu-Gi-Oh!-related video games, is a place of eternal suffering where people can be sent to.

The Shadow Realm as presented in the English-language version does not exist in either the original Japanese-language Yu-Gi-Oh! manga or anime series, although a "Dark World Series" (Yami no Sekkai) is mentioned in the manga and anime (but never as a place of eternal suffering that a human could be sent to), and Shadow Games are depicted as occurring in another dimension. It was this other dark dimension that is the basis for the English-language Shadow Realm, which was essentially created to serve as a substitute for death. Loss of a Shadow Game, or a fatal wound inflicted by a Duel Monster, a Millennium Item, or any other mystical means will, rather than outright kill a character, condemn their soul to the Shadow Realm - a softer defeat, as it is established that a soul can be extracted from the Shadow Realm if need be.

The concept of the Shadow Realm is often derided, mostly for the basic fact that it is a result of the censorship of the darker aspects of the show, but also partly for some of the more preposterous insertions of the Shadow Realm - for example, while dueling the conjurer, Arkana (Pandora in the English manga and Japanese versions), Yugi Muto (Yugi Mutou) comes under threat from a "dark energy disc" which, if it touches him, will send him to the Shadow Realm. In the Japanese version, the disks were simply buzzsaw blades that would dismember the loser. Similarly, a tag-team duel involves the duelists dueling atop skyscrapers. In the English version, the windows they stand on shatter when the team loses, dropping them into the Shadow Realm. In the Japanese version, the windows shatter, and the duelist simply fall to their deaths. Conversely, on occasion, the idea intersects with some of the original visuals - for instance, when Marik Ishtar does away with Mai Valentine's (Mai Kujaku) soul, visuals distinctly show her soul to have been relocated to another plane, which the English-language version is then able to refer to as the Shadow Realm. Tying the concept together towards the show's conclusion, the demon, Zorc Necrophades, is credited with the creation of the Shadow Realm in the English version. Some characters are pulled out of the Shadow Realm in the English anime and the English-language video games.

The Shadow Realm is similar to the concept of Hell.