The Dark Magician Girl is one of the most iconic Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in series history. It is one of Yugi Muto's ace cards, debuting in the Battle City arc of the anime. She has come in handy for Yugi time and time again, saving him from some pretty tough situations. She was also sometimes not a monster and was just an actual character for some reason every once in a while because literally who knows?
Dark Magician Girl has received quite a few different releases and new artworks in her time, so today we'll be taking a look at all of those different designs. Dark Magician Girl is one of the most censored cards in the entire game, due to her usually having some religious connotations (pentagrams) and... a large chest. Just throwing that out there real quick. Without any further ado, let's get into the list.
6 Honorable Mention: Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal
Before we get too deep into the rankings, we have to give an honorable mention to Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal, a card that has only been released in the OCG as of the time of this writing. Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal was originally set to be a new design for the Dark Magician Girl, and was drawn with a more realistic design, akin to one of the Dark Magician's artworks. However, artist Kazuki Takahashi liked the way that the card looked with an Xyz frame. As such, Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal was created.
There are some rumors as to why this card has never been released to the TCG, with some saying that Kazuki Takahashi refuses to release anymore censored Dark Magician Girl cards to the TCG. This has never been confirmed though, so the real reason is unknown. Now, onto the real Dark Magician Girls.
5 Second OCG Style
There's not really a bad version of the Dark Magician Girl, all of the art styles are really well done, and portray the Magician in a pretty accurate light. This one does end up at the bottom of the list though, really because it isn't really doing anything special. The second OCG style of Dark Magician Girl sees her flying through a vortex of hearts, seemingly very happy.
This one is certainly good, but it doesn't do the best job at showing off the personality of the Dark Magician Girl. Also, why is her fist like, huge? We all know that the Dark Magician Girl could punch us directly through a wall. She doesn't need fists the size of her entire head to do so.
4 Third OCG Style
The Dark Magician Girl's third OCG art style is one of her most iconic, and its easy to see why. While the art is well designed on its own, this one is noticeable because she shares her pose with the Dark Magician, her master, on his first card. They've got the same bent knee, hand on hat pose. They also both have the Dark Magic Circle behind them. This design choice is really cool to see, as the two are such highly connected cards, both lore-wise and mechanics-wise. Besides this little feature, the card is overall well designed. However, this certainly isn't the best of the card's designs.
3 Fifth OCG Style
As we'll discuss in a bit, the fourth version of the Dark Magician Girl changed up the art style a bit, and gave the character a bit darker color scheme than she had been depicted with up to that point. The Fifth artwork follows suit with that style, and does so very well. Created for The Dark Side of Dimensions movie, this version of the card fits in well with how the character was designed for the movie. Here she is depicted with a heart background... as she makes finger guns toward the camera? Okay, yeah. Go off Dark Magician Girl. You're iconic, you've earned it.
2 Fourth OCG Style
The Fourth Dark Magician Girl artwork switched gears a bit from the older style, and started to portray her with somewhat darker, more realistic colors. Well, as realistic as you can get with the magician lady who has a liking of pentagrams. Either way, this art is really nice, and sees Dark Magician Girl using her staff in a way that a witch would use her broom, flying on it.
The colors look really nice, and the yellow background pairs really well with the more muted colors that Dark Magician Girl received for her fourth rendition. The muted style really works well on the character. This style would continue into her fifth style, and Magi Magi ☆ Magician Gal's look. How ridiculous do you have to be to have a ☆ in your name? So extra. Either way, if Dark Magician Girl does get another new addition at some point, let's hope that they stick with this art style.
1 First OCG Style
The best Dark Magician Girl artwork of all has to go to her original artwork. While it can certainly be argued that the fourth style is better (it was very, very close to taking the top spot), there's just too much nostalgia with this card. The first Dark Magician Girl was the one that Yugi used throughout the duration of the anime, and it's really just stuck around in our hearts. The card looks great, and has a really nice look to it. The colors on Dark Magician Girl pop, and they contrast really well with the dark red background. It's all tied together nicely with the appearance of the Dark Magic Circle, as a shoutout to the Dark Magician.
Dark Magician Girl has a great set of cards to her name. All of them have their own charm and unique feel to them. While the original did take the top spot on this list, the fourth version is basically just as good, and could easily take the No. 1 spot. When it comes down to it, there isn't really a bad Dark Magician Card.