Boa Noite Brasil (partially found "Yu-Gi-Oh” segment from Brazilian television variety show; 2003)

Mockup image of the segment.

Status: Partially Found

Boa noite Brasil (or Good Evening Brazil) is a Brazilian television variety show hosted by Gilberto Barros from 2003 to 2007. Though, the show became mostly infamous for a segment about the card game, Yu-Gi-Oh being associated with satanism, occultism, and the yakuza.

Background

In 2003, Yu-Gi-Oh was growing exponentially in Brazil due to airing of the anime on television. However, it had a similar battle with religious groups like Pokémon due to the cards and what they depict, mostly claims of references to the devil. As a result of these claims, Gilbero Barro decided to make four programs attacking Yu-Gi-Oh saying that "it was the devil's deck" on June 2nd, 2003.^[1] But on June 5th, 2003, Boa noite Brasil decided to dedicate itself a whole segment to dealing with Yu-Gi-Oh. Gilberto went to great lengths to demonize Yu-Gi-Oh without knowing what it really was.

Barros started the segment by talking about Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic The Gathering, and other card games having satanic symbols and influencing children to Satanism. The prosecution was theologian, Alexandres Farias who antagonized all types of card games and role-playing games were a pure apology to Satanism. Defending the case was event organizer, Luciano Santos, and card game tournament judges, Roger Glasser who explained the origin of Yu-Gi-Oh and that it was a game about agility and intelligence.^[2] Even also explaining that there was no supernatural influence that turned children into zombies, as people wanted to imply at the time. Furthermore, there was a youth court where Gilbero interviewed those who played the card game.

One of the most remembered moments from the segment was Gilbero playing a scene from Dragon Ball Z, claiming that the scene was from Yu-Gi-Oh. Another remembered moment was Gilbero also claiming that there was a Yu-Gi-Oh card that demanded the player to attack their father.^[3]

Consequences and Apology

After the airing of the episode, it spread like wildfire in evangelical churches in Brazil. Many parents bought what Gilberto said about Yu-Gi-Oh and threw away, tore apart, or burned the cards. Schools also started to ban children from bringing Yu-Gi-Oh cards.^[4] The Yu-Gi-Oh anime, which was shown on Nickelodeon and on an open channel, left the open channel's programming in the first quarter of 2004 due to having been reclassified as inappropriate for children under 12 years old.^[5]

In 2017, Gilbero made an apology during a broadcast on TV Leao, quote:

“I was guilty, but not that much guilty. People didn’t understand the message I wanted to give”, recalls Barros, as close as he can to a justification. "It was all from the heart, a movement to improve the youth and children of Brazil."^[6]

Availability

For years, it was believed that there was only one screenshot of the broadcast, but it was then revealed to be a mockup image on February 8th, 2021, which came from another Boa noites Brasil program about Simpatias in 2004.

On January 21st, 2023, two behind-the-scenes photos were found on Alexandre Farias' Flickr taken the next day after the program was made.

On January 11th, 2024, some images of the program were released on the Lost Media Brasil discord server from Redes Bandeierantes, including one of Gilbero Barros tearing a Yu-Gi-Oh card apart.^[7]

On November 15th, 2024, Reddit user Kirby__000 posted on the Lost Media Brasil subreddit that there were three clips of the segment uploaded onto YouTube by user CTERHEMA in 2003.^[8]

As of 2024, the full segment hasn’t been released online.

Gallery

Images

Gilberto ripping a card apart.
Someone shuffling through a deck.
Gilberto showing two Yu-Gi-oh booster packs to the camera.
Gilberto interviewing kids who played the card game. (1/2)
(2/2)
Gilberto shows a Magic: The gathering card to the camera.
The person in the left part of the picture is a journalist, but, the person on the right used to be the deputy mayor of Belo Horizonte, "Betinho" Duarte, who tried to make these card games illegal in Brazil.
Gilberto printed out comments, emails and forum posts from people criticizing his comments about the card game and how exaggerated the broadcast was.
Photo of the dressing room.
Image of Gilberto Barros and Alexandre Farias behind the scenes.