[DeepL Translation - needs review] Duel Academia, a school for training the next generation of Duelists on an isolated island in the South Seas. Despite being in the lowest class out of the three classes there, and even being expelled from school depending on his grades, Yuuki Judai has the ability to do well. The duel story of him and his friends is about to begin! The digital version does not include the included card. Please note that the digital version does not come with the bundled car...
I loved the Yu-Gi-Oh GX anime as a teenager. That's why I wanted to read the manga version in Japanese. Now that I've read all volumes, I want to share my thoughts:
The story (no spoiler)
Interestingly, the manga has many similarities but also big differences. To put it simply: they took familiar characters from the anime, added some new ones and told a complete new story. The manga version feels like a parallel universe. I really liked the anime so I was a bit sceptical at first. It's a very different story, yes, but overall a good one in my opinion.
For example: I liked how the manga gave the protagonist (Judai) more depth. Quite early in the story, his backstory explaines how he became a duelist and why he uses this particular deck. In the manga, Judai has a strong "why". This is something I missed in the beginning of the anime version.
Difficulty
Most chapters contain two types of scenes: story scenes and duel scenes.
Language wise, the story scenes are much more interesting for Japanese learners. If you are already familiar with reading manga in Japanese, they are not too difficult. Plus, the manga has full furigana.
During duel scenes, they often use the same phrases and vocabulary over and over. If you are familiar with Yu-Gi-Oh in any way (anime, manga, card game) these scenes are not too hard to understand. Some parts are a bit complex but if you know the basic rules you will be fine. Plus, the pictures make it pretty clear what happens.
Some of these duels are quite interesting for people like me (I love the old Yu-Gi-Oh GX games for Playstation Portable, for example), but if you are not that interested in the duels themselves, it's perfectly fine to skim over them and just focus on the pictures to get the gist: who wins, who loses and what the consequences are. I think it's not necessary to read every single line during these scenes. Vocabulary wise, you won't miss too much. The story scenes are much more interesting in terms of vocabulary, imo.