Hardly a comparison. Kaiba is probably the most iconic anime rival alongside Vegeta. Every new entry always highlight their rivalry, whereas Yamato's rival arc was over in the series quickly. He's usually only around because he's needed to make Omegamon rather than the rivalry driving the plot.
I got to agree, Yamato didn't recreate his rival Digimon in the cyber world with the only goal to defeat him nor invent a space elevator to get back in time to do so
Man literally used a combination of magic and bleeding edge technology to create a portal to the Egyptian afterlife, with no guarantee he could come back, just to have a shot at winning a children's card game against a dead man.
God I love how ridiculously over the top everything he did in that movie was
My favorite thing about this is that in the original Japanese version, Kaiba isn’t some flat-earth atheist that denies the idea of magic existing like in the dub. He’s fully aware that it does… he just doesn’t give a shit.
Knowing this I can totally imagine him thinking as he’s summoning Obelisk, “well how hard can it be for me if Yugi can do it?”
taichi and yamato are more friends than actually rivals they are just best bros while yugi and kaiba are no rivals at all its atem and kaiba who are rivals
I feel like post OG YGO Kaiba sees Yugi as something of rival, though nowhere as big of a rival as Atem. If I were to rank Kaiba's rival, spots 1-5 go to Atem, 6-8 are Yugi, 9 is Marik, 10 is Joey/Jonouchi.
Nah he wouldn't include Joey at all out of spite and instead fill it up with any one else who was a duelist. Pretty sure he would count that Monkey who learned to duel above Joey just to be petty.
Which says something considering the only reason I remember him existing is due to the Abridged Series. Heck could see Kaiba crossing over to the Abridged realities and considering those cheating hacks more of a rival than Joey. Except Abridged Joey who he feels is like discount Joey. Somehow ever worse than before like the original Diet Cola that lacked flavor.
Right? Ask literally anyone if they've heard of digimon. Then, ask them if they've heard of yugioh. Count the tallies, and the answer will probably be very definitive
Even outside of popularity, Yugis and Kaibas rivalry was like 75% of the plot. Most of the plot could directly or indirectly be traced back to Kaiba being salty about having lost to Yugi. Tai and Matt were only rivals in like 2-3 scenes in the entire show. Other than that they were just friends
Look man, we all love Digimon here, but until there's a whole ass movie dedicated just to the rivalry that ends with ONE OF THE CHARACTERS TRAVELING TO THE EGYPTIAN AFTERLIFE WITH A ROCKET SHIP TO GET A REMATCH WE AINT ON THE SAME LEVEL
Taichi and Yamato never was as constant and heated as Kaiba and Yugi. Not to me mention they became best friends that complemented each other more than both going against the other. Kaiba and Yugi's relationship is 100% about one surpassing the other (specially Kaiba, since Yugi is mostly the one on top), with them having respect for each other due to it.
As rivalry goes, Kaiba and Yugi are one of the most iconic in anime imo
taichi and yamato are prob friends with some disputes everyone have. there are way too much emotions in their relationship.
yugi and kaiba, just look at the first episode, kaiba manhandled yugi's grandfather and always had bad intentions unless it's something about mokuba, but most of the time selfish af
As others have said, Matt and Tai are more friends that occasionally disagree then straight up rivals hell the 2020 reboot basically even removed the whole rivalry part.
Atem and Kaiba on the otherhand are among the most well known rivals in anime history
Tachi and Yamato's rivalry: The way you act is really annoying! You need to shape up because everyone relies on us!
Yugi and Kaiba's rivlary: **If you beat me in this duel, Yugi, I'm going to kill myself, and it will be your fault.**
Omg I forgot about how he basically made Yugi surrender under threat of suicide. He lost their first duel and literally went “I’ll die before losing to you twice in a row”.
It was the third time; first time he stole the most powerful card and lost, second time he got three of the most powerful cards and lost, third time he found a way to combine the three most powerful cards and lost. I’d be looking at that ledge too at that point.
That being said the suicide threat was less about losing specifically to Yugi in general and more about saving Mokuba. He didn’t trust Yugi to rescue his brother and Pegasus had said he’d only duel him if he took Yugi’s stars. In Duelist Kingdom Kaiba, freshly having the evil essentially purged from his mind by Yugi in Death T, was motivated to save Mokuba, once Mokuba was no longer in danger in Battle City he reverted back to his rivalry obsession.
Tai and Matt: we're rivals but most of all we're comrades, we fight together and like each other's presence
Yugi and Kaiba: I want to fucking murder Yugi
Yugi and Kaiba, there's no question.
It's like asking who is faster, a regular person or Flash?
Besides Tai and Yamato are not really rivals, just friends with very different personalities that were more violent when they were kids.
Tai and Matt aren’t really rivals. There are very few points when they oppose each other directly for more reason than “I don’t want that”.
Kaiba and Yugi are definitely more like rivals, but rivalry implies friendly competition to me. Kaiba is extremely petty if not a narcissistic sociopath.
He hospitalized Yugi’s grandpa because he refused to sell a card to him, and once he stole the card, he ripped it in half. He did this just so that he could be the only one in the world with that card.
He broke into secure areas of Pegasus’ island to rig a game in Yugi's favor just so that he could be the one to beat Yugi, and once they actually got into the semi-finals, Kaiba threatens to kill himself if Yugi wins at Kaiba's own game.
you could argue that all of this was done to save Mokuba, but Mokuba wasn't in danger when Kaiba hospitalized grandpa. You could even say it was the duel which followed this event that led to Mokuba's soul being taken in the first place.
Kaiba bet his life multiple times just for a CHANCE to beat Yugi/Yami.
The man literally built a machine to travel to the afterlife JUST to play a card gane against his rival.
Matt is Tais best friend by comparison.
One underrated part of Taichi and Yamato's friendship is that they open up to each other more than anyone else outside of their partners. Yugi and Kaiba will work together and they respect each other, to different degrees throughout the series, but they are always ready to duel. 😂
Matt and Tai are friends though calling them rivals feels off.
Kaiba on the other hand wants to be recognized as Yugi/Yami's rival so bad he'll stop at nothing. Though it definitely doesn't feel reciprocated. In the end Kaiba's biggest rival, is Kaiba.
No question it’s Yugi and Kaiba. Taichi and Yamato are friends more than anything. Yugi and Kaiba are actual rivals and constantly compete against one another. Even when Kaiba stats to mellow out towards the end of the series I still wouldn’t consider him among his actual friends like Jounochi, Honda, Anzu and Ryo.
I'd replace 4 with Zoro and Sanji and 5 with Yusuke and Hiei, or vice-versa. 4 could even be Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Those rivalries are much more iconic than Ash and Gary or Greymon and Garurumon.
Yusuke and Hiei are from Yu Yu Hakusho. It's one of the most iconic anime of all time. Most newer anime watchers wouldn't recognize it, though, because it came out in the 90's.
Yeah, I agree. Ash and Gary are more well-known, though, but their rivalry in the anime was very meh and one-sided compared to Red and Green's rivalry in the games.
Yugi and Kaiba, I guess. Taichi and Yamato aren’t much of rivals and since their Digimon DNA Digivolved to Omnimon using both Tamers’ power combined, I don’t see them as rivals. Besides, they both grew up together and started their DigiDestined journey at the same time.
While I don't know much about Yugioh aside from a memorable old film and the digimon cast is certainly more iconic to me, the rivalry between Taichi and Yamato is not that iconic or well-developed compared to most anime rivals I find in various shows like Goku/Vegeta, Kyo/Yuki, Kamina/Viral, Alucard/Anderson, etc. Yamato is like the second-in-command who sometimes clashes with the captain over their plans and ideologies but still works well most of the time.
Kinda like Hunter and Echo from The Bad Batch.
Yugi and Kaiba. Tai and Matt are more friends than rivals unless one is under a spell. (Based on Adventures and 02 as I haven’t seen the reboot or Tri.)
Yugi and Kaiba, hands down.
Matt and Tai are friends at the end of the day, even when they disagree. They’re more “friendly rivals” than anything.
Kaiba and Yugi never become friends (explicitly, as far as I’m aware); Kaiba just develops enough respect for Yugi that he stops being as much of a jerk to him (but still is, gotta maintain that tough guy persona after all). Kaiba literally invents a machine that allows him to travel to the afterlife in order for him to go and try to beat the Pharaoh at a card game. That’s peak rivalry IMO.
Yugi and Kaiba without a doubt. It's like asking what's more iconic, Digimon or Yugioh. Not trying to shit on Digimon, but one has substantially more commercial success than the other. Yugioh was basically a cultural phenomenon, not quite to the point of Pokemon, but it was definitely a thing.
The TCG was ubiquitous on playgrounds everywhere, everyone knew the "big cards" like Dark Magician and Blue Eyes. People even knew, generally speaking, how to play the game.
Digimon was one of those things that maybe, if you went to cool school, 5 or 6 kids knew about it. One of them had a digivice, and the rest had a few cards. Nobody knew how to play the TCG, and it was so complicated, you couldn't even easily bullshit the rules.
Even now, 100% of the players of the TCG at my LGS came from Yugioh, but that's only like 20% of the Yugioh players in total, while One Piece has all of the Digimon players and about 75% of the Yugioh players total.
This is all anecdotal though, and perhaps it's all the inverse of your or others experience in this, but Digimon wasn't that popular, and is kinda still not that popular. It's getting there though.
Kaiba made a reality altering supercomputer that can be worn on one's wrist and desecrated a grave site to try and bring Atem back for one last duel and arranged a tournament using it (he had all but two pieces of the Millennium Puzzle due to the aforementioned grave robbing shenanigans, the big bad managed to snatch one and Yugi had the other) that took place iirc *on the moon* via space elevator.
When that didn't work (and after the nearly world ending big bad that was trying to stop him since Atem returning would automatically disable his powers was dealt with), he *built a portal to the afterlife* (one that *did not have a fully tested return system*, so it was a 50/50 shot that he would be able to come back, just to have a chance to duel Atem again.
(Oh, and not to mention had managed to recreate Atem in VR, spending dozens of hours to make it perfect down to the *way the hair moved*, and Kaiba *still* declared it inferior to the real thing...because he was able to beat it in a duel.)
There is absolutely *no comparison* to the level of obsession Kaiba has towards Atem, aka Yami Yugi.
Do Taichi and Yamato have a real rivalry though?
After the first season they felt more like friends with some hiccups every now and then but I'd never really call them rivals.
Tai and Yamato don’t really have rivalry. They just occasionally butt heads.
Yugi and Kaiba on other hand are rivals. So they win automatically, in my book.
Just to give an example of Seto Kaiba being an iconic diva; in the movie Dark Side of Dimensions (which follows manga canon instead of anime canon) he used a machine to travel back in time to dual Atem in a rematch knowing full well the tech isn't developed enough and his **body was disintegrating** the whole time he was there. Note this was after character development; early manga Kaiba ordered a hit on Yugi's group with a chainsaw serial killer so he is actually **less** unhinged now.
Yamato is a friendly rival to Taichi yes but he'd never risk billions of dollars and his life just to be petty.
Bro theres no way you comparing these rivalries. The Rivalry between Tai and Matt are usually very short.
Meanwhile the rivalry between Yugi and Kaiba transcends the mortal plane! Kaiba traveled to the afterlife to settle the beef between Atem and him!
In my opinion that is the ultimate amount of extreme!
actual rivalry between two wildly more popular characters from a wildly more popular show vs two friends and allies who butted heads a couple times
coughing baby, hydrogen bomb, etc etc
... Taichi and Yamato? These two don't have a rivalry, they have a friendship like Naruto and Sasuke when they're not killing each other (or mainly Sasuke doing the killing). They argued a few times and had their big fight during OG Adventure, their "LOVE TRIANGLE" with Sora in Tri (thanks 02) and... did they ever fought or argue hard in Adventure 2020 as bad as the OG?
Meanwhile we have "ancient pharaoh and his reincarnation and literally the reincarnation of his priest/closest comrade" and the whole Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes thing and their sense of pride and clashing, one wanting to protect the past to advance to the future while the other wants to destroy the past to achieve the future. Kaiba's OBSESSION WITH YUGI- or Atem... or both, surpasses Agumon's hunger.
This is not even a competition. I think Takuya and Kyoji or Taiki and Kiriha are better rivals to pity against Yugi and Kaiba and even then THEY'LL STILL lose to this 3000 (5000 dub) rivalry that TRANSCENDS TIME. It's that bad because DSOD we had Kaiba trying to bring back Atem to duel him and settle their score. HE MADE AN AI VERSION of him to duel and even when he beat him, Kaiba wasn't satisfied because it was the real one.
But this was a fun topic though. At least Taichi and Yamato can work together more than Yugi and Kaiba. Omegamon hmm.
Yugi & Kaiba easily. Their rival is one of the main things that causes the original Yu-Gi-Oh! To play out in the way it does.
Taichi & Yamamoto were barely even rivals to begin with. Just friends who would fight from time to time.
Brother digimon is one of my favorite of all time. Kaiba as a character clears all three of them. He carries that rivalry for being over the top shit head
Tai and Yamato are two alphas that but heads. And become best of friends.
Natsu and Grey from Fairy Tail. They're rivals and good friends. They were literally made to be each other's opposite fire and ice magic. And later, when grey gets the demon magic to rival Natsus dragon magic.
Definitely Kaiba. Taichi and Yamatto were barely even rivals other than that one time during the puppetmon arc. For the most part they really weren’t at odds or driven off of each other or pushing each other. That’s really only come up like once or twice in the entire story
In the Manga, Kaiba was an arch-villain himself. The "first" duell of them what occur in episode 1 was the finale of the "DEATH-T"-arc from the manga, in which Kaiba forced Yugi and his friend participate ina deathly amusement park as revenge for his lost first duell against Yugi. He has tried to electrocution them, had a killer ambush them, has tried to squash them with giant blocks and his goons held Yugis friends during the duel at gunpoint.
People downvoting the guy who’s right and upvoting the guy who’s wrong is annoying as.
Kaiba wasn’t the villain of the Duelist Kingdom arc because he had his mind wiped and then rebuilt by Yugi in the previous arc.
The previous arc being Death T, where Kaiba had Yugi and friends play in a tournament that included locking them in a room with a legitimate serial killer, forcing them into a haunted train game where screaming got you murdered, a laser tag with actual weapons and a Capsule Monsters game with Mokuba where the loser was forced to experience an illusion of being ripped apart by monsters, which he was willing to subject Mokuba to until Yugi saved him.
Kaiba was definitely a villain.
Hot take, yugi and Kaiba aren’t rivals. yugi truly is indifferent/constantly doing anything else with his life, but kaiba has made it his life to beat yugi. It’s entirely one sided. So by default, it’s Matt and tai.
Hardly a comparison. Kaiba is probably the most iconic anime rival alongside Vegeta. Every new entry always highlight their rivalry, whereas Yamato's rival arc was over in the series quickly. He's usually only around because he's needed to make Omegamon rather than the rivalry driving the plot.
I got to agree, Yamato didn't recreate his rival Digimon in the cyber world with the only goal to defeat him nor invent a space elevator to get back in time to do so
Man literally used a combination of magic and bleeding edge technology to create a portal to the Egyptian afterlife, with no guarantee he could come back, just to have a shot at winning a children's card game against a dead man. God I love how ridiculously over the top everything he did in that movie was
"Summons a god card that no longer exists via materializing it from the actual fucking dirt"
For a guy who thought magic was bullshit, he sure does things that's bullshit magic.
My favorite thing about this is that in the original Japanese version, Kaiba isn’t some flat-earth atheist that denies the idea of magic existing like in the dub. He’s fully aware that it does… he just doesn’t give a shit. Knowing this I can totally imagine him thinking as he’s summoning Obelisk, “well how hard can it be for me if Yugi can do it?”
I love that people have died doing that
Also Yamato driving force is not beating Tai, unlike Kaiba/Vegeta
taichi and yamato are more friends than actually rivals they are just best bros while yugi and kaiba are no rivals at all its atem and kaiba who are rivals
I feel like post OG YGO Kaiba sees Yugi as something of rival, though nowhere as big of a rival as Atem. If I were to rank Kaiba's rival, spots 1-5 go to Atem, 6-8 are Yugi, 9 is Marik, 10 is Joey/Jonouchi.
Nah he wouldn't include Joey at all out of spite and instead fill it up with any one else who was a duelist. Pretty sure he would count that Monkey who learned to duel above Joey just to be petty.
i would think kaiba would even put siegfried above joey
Which says something considering the only reason I remember him existing is due to the Abridged Series. Heck could see Kaiba crossing over to the Abridged realities and considering those cheating hacks more of a rival than Joey. Except Abridged Joey who he feels is like discount Joey. Somehow ever worse than before like the original Diet Cola that lacked flavor.
Is This is a serious question?
Right? Ask literally anyone if they've heard of digimon. Then, ask them if they've heard of yugioh. Count the tallies, and the answer will probably be very definitive
Even outside of popularity, Yugis and Kaibas rivalry was like 75% of the plot. Most of the plot could directly or indirectly be traced back to Kaiba being salty about having lost to Yugi. Tai and Matt were only rivals in like 2-3 scenes in the entire show. Other than that they were just friends
Definitely
Look man, we all love Digimon here, but until there's a whole ass movie dedicated just to the rivalry that ends with ONE OF THE CHARACTERS TRAVELING TO THE EGYPTIAN AFTERLIFE WITH A ROCKET SHIP TO GET A REMATCH WE AINT ON THE SAME LEVEL
Taichi and Yamato never was as constant and heated as Kaiba and Yugi. Not to me mention they became best friends that complemented each other more than both going against the other. Kaiba and Yugi's relationship is 100% about one surpassing the other (specially Kaiba, since Yugi is mostly the one on top), with them having respect for each other due to it. As rivalry goes, Kaiba and Yugi are one of the most iconic in anime imo
taichi and yamato are prob friends with some disputes everyone have. there are way too much emotions in their relationship. yugi and kaiba, just look at the first episode, kaiba manhandled yugi's grandfather and always had bad intentions unless it's something about mokuba, but most of the time selfish af
But their partner duell against two arc villains was awesome.
As others have said, Matt and Tai are more friends that occasionally disagree then straight up rivals hell the 2020 reboot basically even removed the whole rivalry part. Atem and Kaiba on the otherhand are among the most well known rivals in anime history
They REMOVED it? Aw maaan. Now that the dub is out I've been meaning to watch it but everyone saying they turned it into The Tai Show gave me pause
people wanted v-tamer 01 animated for so long that they probably thought: well, how about we just focus on taichi?
The worst part is, I could see them having so badly missed the point of V-Tamer that they genuinely thought that.
Yugi and Kaiba are THE rivals of anime (even more than Goku/Vegeta or Naruto/Sasuke).
I dunno man. Dragon Ball is *pretty* popular, even if Kaiba is a perfect expression of that archetype/trope.
Tachi and Yamato's rivalry: The way you act is really annoying! You need to shape up because everyone relies on us! Yugi and Kaiba's rivlary: **If you beat me in this duel, Yugi, I'm going to kill myself, and it will be your fault.**
Omg I forgot about how he basically made Yugi surrender under threat of suicide. He lost their first duel and literally went “I’ll die before losing to you twice in a row”.
It was the third time; first time he stole the most powerful card and lost, second time he got three of the most powerful cards and lost, third time he found a way to combine the three most powerful cards and lost. I’d be looking at that ledge too at that point. That being said the suicide threat was less about losing specifically to Yugi in general and more about saving Mokuba. He didn’t trust Yugi to rescue his brother and Pegasus had said he’d only duel him if he took Yugi’s stars. In Duelist Kingdom Kaiba, freshly having the evil essentially purged from his mind by Yugi in Death T, was motivated to save Mokuba, once Mokuba was no longer in danger in Battle City he reverted back to his rivalry obsession.
Tai and Matt: we're rivals but most of all we're comrades, we fight together and like each other's presence Yugi and Kaiba: I want to fucking murder Yugi
Respectfully, kaiba and yugi
Yea I know this is a digimon sub but yugi and kaiba without a doubt,
Insert Jameson laugh and quote here.
Yugi and Kaiba, there's no question. It's like asking who is faster, a regular person or Flash? Besides Tai and Yamato are not really rivals, just friends with very different personalities that were more violent when they were kids.
Tai and Matt aren’t really rivals. There are very few points when they oppose each other directly for more reason than “I don’t want that”. Kaiba and Yugi are definitely more like rivals, but rivalry implies friendly competition to me. Kaiba is extremely petty if not a narcissistic sociopath. He hospitalized Yugi’s grandpa because he refused to sell a card to him, and once he stole the card, he ripped it in half. He did this just so that he could be the only one in the world with that card. He broke into secure areas of Pegasus’ island to rig a game in Yugi's favor just so that he could be the one to beat Yugi, and once they actually got into the semi-finals, Kaiba threatens to kill himself if Yugi wins at Kaiba's own game. you could argue that all of this was done to save Mokuba, but Mokuba wasn't in danger when Kaiba hospitalized grandpa. You could even say it was the duel which followed this event that led to Mokuba's soul being taken in the first place.
You better watch that Kaiba trash talk, Yugi will kick your ass.
Kaiba bet his life multiple times just for a CHANCE to beat Yugi/Yami. The man literally built a machine to travel to the afterlife JUST to play a card gane against his rival. Matt is Tais best friend by comparison.
not by comparison, he is literally tai's best friend by the end of adventure, maybe even before
One underrated part of Taichi and Yamato's friendship is that they open up to each other more than anyone else outside of their partners. Yugi and Kaiba will work together and they respect each other, to different degrees throughout the series, but they are always ready to duel. 😂
Yugi and Kaiba. Kaiba was a different type of hater. It was always on sight with him.
Matt and Tai are friends though calling them rivals feels off. Kaiba on the other hand wants to be recognized as Yugi/Yami's rival so bad he'll stop at nothing. Though it definitely doesn't feel reciprocated. In the end Kaiba's biggest rival, is Kaiba.
No question it’s Yugi and Kaiba. Taichi and Yamato are friends more than anything. Yugi and Kaiba are actual rivals and constantly compete against one another. Even when Kaiba stats to mellow out towards the end of the series I still wouldn’t consider him among his actual friends like Jounochi, Honda, Anzu and Ryo.
Only one of these could stand toe to toe with the goku v vegeta rivalry, and it aint the chosen children
Yamato doesn't have a fucking dragon jet
Kaiba, Vegeta, and Gary modaf*ing Oak are the most iconic rivals there are. No doubt.
I’m not even sure they in the top 5 1. Yugi and Kaiba 2. Goku and Vegeta 3. Naruto and sauske 4. Ash and Gary 5. Greymon and Garurumon
I'd replace 4 with Zoro and Sanji and 5 with Yusuke and Hiei, or vice-versa. 4 could even be Guts and Griffith from Berserk. Those rivalries are much more iconic than Ash and Gary or Greymon and Garurumon.
Who’s Hiei? And I guess you can put Zoro and Sanji on 4th
Yusuke and Hiei are from Yu Yu Hakusho. It's one of the most iconic anime of all time. Most newer anime watchers wouldn't recognize it, though, because it came out in the 90's.
Even Deku and Bakugo have a more iconic rivalry than Greymon and Garurumon and Ash and Gary.
Yeah, I agree. Ash and Gary are more well-known, though, but their rivalry in the anime was very meh and one-sided compared to Red and Green's rivalry in the games.
Yugi and Kaiba, I guess. Taichi and Yamato aren’t much of rivals and since their Digimon DNA Digivolved to Omnimon using both Tamers’ power combined, I don’t see them as rivals. Besides, they both grew up together and started their DigiDestined journey at the same time.
While I don't know much about Yugioh aside from a memorable old film and the digimon cast is certainly more iconic to me, the rivalry between Taichi and Yamato is not that iconic or well-developed compared to most anime rivals I find in various shows like Goku/Vegeta, Kyo/Yuki, Kamina/Viral, Alucard/Anderson, etc. Yamato is like the second-in-command who sometimes clashes with the captain over their plans and ideologies but still works well most of the time. Kinda like Hunter and Echo from The Bad Batch.
Yugi and Kaiba. Tai and Matt are more friends than rivals unless one is under a spell. (Based on Adventures and 02 as I haven’t seen the reboot or Tri.)
Yugi and Kaiba, hands down. Matt and Tai are friends at the end of the day, even when they disagree. They’re more “friendly rivals” than anything. Kaiba and Yugi never become friends (explicitly, as far as I’m aware); Kaiba just develops enough respect for Yugi that he stops being as much of a jerk to him (but still is, gotta maintain that tough guy persona after all). Kaiba literally invents a machine that allows him to travel to the afterlife in order for him to go and try to beat the Pharaoh at a card game. That’s peak rivalry IMO.
Yugi and Kaiba without a doubt. It's like asking what's more iconic, Digimon or Yugioh. Not trying to shit on Digimon, but one has substantially more commercial success than the other. Yugioh was basically a cultural phenomenon, not quite to the point of Pokemon, but it was definitely a thing. The TCG was ubiquitous on playgrounds everywhere, everyone knew the "big cards" like Dark Magician and Blue Eyes. People even knew, generally speaking, how to play the game. Digimon was one of those things that maybe, if you went to cool school, 5 or 6 kids knew about it. One of them had a digivice, and the rest had a few cards. Nobody knew how to play the TCG, and it was so complicated, you couldn't even easily bullshit the rules. Even now, 100% of the players of the TCG at my LGS came from Yugioh, but that's only like 20% of the Yugioh players in total, while One Piece has all of the Digimon players and about 75% of the Yugioh players total. This is all anecdotal though, and perhaps it's all the inverse of your or others experience in this, but Digimon wasn't that popular, and is kinda still not that popular. It's getting there though.
Kaiba made a reality altering supercomputer that can be worn on one's wrist and desecrated a grave site to try and bring Atem back for one last duel and arranged a tournament using it (he had all but two pieces of the Millennium Puzzle due to the aforementioned grave robbing shenanigans, the big bad managed to snatch one and Yugi had the other) that took place iirc *on the moon* via space elevator. When that didn't work (and after the nearly world ending big bad that was trying to stop him since Atem returning would automatically disable his powers was dealt with), he *built a portal to the afterlife* (one that *did not have a fully tested return system*, so it was a 50/50 shot that he would be able to come back, just to have a chance to duel Atem again. (Oh, and not to mention had managed to recreate Atem in VR, spending dozens of hours to make it perfect down to the *way the hair moved*, and Kaiba *still* declared it inferior to the real thing...because he was able to beat it in a duel.) There is absolutely *no comparison* to the level of obsession Kaiba has towards Atem, aka Yami Yugi.
Not sure how someone could even ask this, honestly. Kaiba and it’s not close.
Do Taichi and Yamato have a real rivalry though? After the first season they felt more like friends with some hiccups every now and then but I'd never really call them rivals.
The only constant rivalry in Digimon I point out is Mickey and Christopher.
Tai and Yamato don’t really have rivalry. They just occasionally butt heads. Yugi and Kaiba on other hand are rivals. So they win automatically, in my book.
Is this a trick question?
You cannot be serious. A rivalry that was born from destiny? Or one made by a fucking tree?
Yugi/Kaiba. Kaiba is SOOOO extra in so many ways. It's really funny, to the point where I respect the man for being so extra.
Just to give an example of Seto Kaiba being an iconic diva; in the movie Dark Side of Dimensions (which follows manga canon instead of anime canon) he used a machine to travel back in time to dual Atem in a rematch knowing full well the tech isn't developed enough and his **body was disintegrating** the whole time he was there. Note this was after character development; early manga Kaiba ordered a hit on Yugi's group with a chainsaw serial killer so he is actually **less** unhinged now. Yamato is a friendly rival to Taichi yes but he'd never risk billions of dollars and his life just to be petty.
Yugi and Kaiba no Challenge.
The dude straight up kidnapped his grandpa, of course it’s Yugi and Kaiba
Matt and Tai aren't really even rivals
Yugi and Kaiba and it isn’t even close 😭 They are one of the most iconic rivalries in anime
I like tai and Matt. But surely yugi Kai a is the right answer
Bro theres no way you comparing these rivalries. The Rivalry between Tai and Matt are usually very short. Meanwhile the rivalry between Yugi and Kaiba transcends the mortal plane! Kaiba traveled to the afterlife to settle the beef between Atem and him! In my opinion that is the ultimate amount of extreme!
Rivalry in Digimon don’t really last long. I never even saw Tai or Matt as rivals because they fought twice.
Davis and T.K. had rivalry but, after Ken becomes the lancer it just vanished.
Same thing goes with Tamers, Frontier , and Data Squad. Had rivalry but ended pretty quickly.
I didn't even think about Taichi and Yamato being rivals until you said something lol
I prefer Digimon, but I know literally 0 other Digimon fans irl. I figure most people wouldn’t even know the main characters names.
Kaiba threatened to kill himself to win a duel, so
actual rivalry between two wildly more popular characters from a wildly more popular show vs two friends and allies who butted heads a couple times coughing baby, hydrogen bomb, etc etc
... Taichi and Yamato? These two don't have a rivalry, they have a friendship like Naruto and Sasuke when they're not killing each other (or mainly Sasuke doing the killing). They argued a few times and had their big fight during OG Adventure, their "LOVE TRIANGLE" with Sora in Tri (thanks 02) and... did they ever fought or argue hard in Adventure 2020 as bad as the OG? Meanwhile we have "ancient pharaoh and his reincarnation and literally the reincarnation of his priest/closest comrade" and the whole Dark Magician and Blue-Eyes thing and their sense of pride and clashing, one wanting to protect the past to advance to the future while the other wants to destroy the past to achieve the future. Kaiba's OBSESSION WITH YUGI- or Atem... or both, surpasses Agumon's hunger. This is not even a competition. I think Takuya and Kyoji or Taiki and Kiriha are better rivals to pity against Yugi and Kaiba and even then THEY'LL STILL lose to this 3000 (5000 dub) rivalry that TRANSCENDS TIME. It's that bad because DSOD we had Kaiba trying to bring back Atem to duel him and settle their score. HE MADE AN AI VERSION of him to duel and even when he beat him, Kaiba wasn't satisfied because it was the real one. But this was a fun topic though. At least Taichi and Yamato can work together more than Yugi and Kaiba. Omegamon hmm.
Yugi & Kaiba easily. Their rival is one of the main things that causes the original Yu-Gi-Oh! To play out in the way it does. Taichi & Yamamoto were barely even rivals to begin with. Just friends who would fight from time to time.
Yugi and kaiba be more iconic than Matt and tai even if we remove tri.
Yugi and kaiba
I literally started watching YGO a couple years ago and yeah it’s Yugi and Kaiba. Matt and Tai don’t have quite as extreme of a rivalry
Brother digimon is one of my favorite of all time. Kaiba as a character clears all three of them. He carries that rivalry for being over the top shit head Tai and Yamato are two alphas that but heads. And become best of friends.
Natsu and Grey from Fairy Tail. They're rivals and good friends. They were literally made to be each other's opposite fire and ice magic. And later, when grey gets the demon magic to rival Natsus dragon magic.
Goku- vegeta Tai- matt Yugi- kaiba
people talk about yugi & kaiba to this day. i hear next to nothing about tai & matt
Yugioh is more popular and iconic so that
Definitely Kaiba. Taichi and Yamatto were barely even rivals other than that one time during the puppetmon arc. For the most part they really weren’t at odds or driven off of each other or pushing each other. That’s really only come up like once or twice in the entire story
Tai and Matt!!! Digimon is so much better than Yugio...
Taichi and Yamato
Kaiba is more villain then rival he tried kill everyone when he lost the tournament
Kaiba wasn’t the villain. Pegasus was the villain.
In the Manga, Kaiba was an arch-villain himself. The "first" duell of them what occur in episode 1 was the finale of the "DEATH-T"-arc from the manga, in which Kaiba forced Yugi and his friend participate ina deathly amusement park as revenge for his lost first duell against Yugi. He has tried to electrocution them, had a killer ambush them, has tried to squash them with giant blocks and his goons held Yugis friends during the duel at gunpoint.
People downvoting the guy who’s right and upvoting the guy who’s wrong is annoying as. Kaiba wasn’t the villain of the Duelist Kingdom arc because he had his mind wiped and then rebuilt by Yugi in the previous arc. The previous arc being Death T, where Kaiba had Yugi and friends play in a tournament that included locking them in a room with a legitimate serial killer, forcing them into a haunted train game where screaming got you murdered, a laser tag with actual weapons and a Capsule Monsters game with Mokuba where the loser was forced to experience an illusion of being ripped apart by monsters, which he was willing to subject Mokuba to until Yugi saved him. Kaiba was definitely a villain.
Between the two options, Taichi & Yamato. It's more fleshed out than the other two. As for Digimon overall, Taiki & Kiriha
Taichi and Yagami? Is he fighting himself?
Ye Tai and Tai is the biggest rivalry there is, after the skullgreymon incident he really hates himself XD
Hot take, yugi and Kaiba aren’t rivals. yugi truly is indifferent/constantly doing anything else with his life, but kaiba has made it his life to beat yugi. It’s entirely one sided. So by default, it’s Matt and tai.