Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time

For those just joining us: this 50-minute 3D anime celebrates a decade of ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’, a Japanese manga that spawned a lucrative trading card game, three TV series, 2004’s feature film ‘Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light’ and sundry video games. Helpfully, this international release version gets us up to speed with an 11-minute intro to its central characters, Yugi Muto (who unlocked an Ancient Egyptian artefact to bring the magical monsters to life), Jaden Yuki (top student in a monster-duelling academy) and Jusei Fudo (potential saviour of New Domino City). These heroes from three different periods come together to pool their card-playing and monster-controlling skills against embittered time-traveller Paradox, who wants to destroy the card game forever to save the future. At which point, the four-way stand-off begins and it gets fiendishly complicated… The animation is basic, the story is bonkers, but kids familiar with the labyrinthine rules might find it bright and breezy enough. Accompanying parents are advised to adopt the brace position.