The Yu-Gi-Oh Craze

By Mark McPherson
24th May 04

Let's face it. PokeMon is dead. It still scrapes up a large ammount of fans, but the majority of children are talking, watching and playing Yu-Gi-Oh and from the looks of it, it's going to be around a long time. It is only fair that we, though dedicated to the more mature and young adult titles of anime, must examine why Yu-Gi-Oh is becoming popular.

Yu-Gi-Oh's first TV season was cut from the US release and there is a good reason for it. The first few episodes were basically used for experimenting with different types of games such as digital pets or monster chess. It was not until later on in the season that the idea of Duel Monsters card came became the main focus of the series. Thus, the show spread out in all new directions with the card game including other games based on the based on Duel Monsters such as Dungeon Dice Monsters. The show linked the card game to Egyptian mythology and I appreciate how that carries the show, but like almost every anime geared towards children, it's meant to sell the card game. This spawned into video games, action figures and all sorts of Yu-Gi-Oh apparel, which is expected.

I was curious to discover how such a game could become so popular. I, therefore, ventured out to study this game. I thought this was going to be a more complex version of Magic The Gathering, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. The cards are simply divided up by a color code...

Yellow: Monster Cards.
Red: Monster\Effect Cards.
Blue: Ritual Summon Monster Cards.
Green: Magic Cards.
Purple: Trap Cards.

Through my journey of discovery, I discovered that there are several different ways the game is played. The most common way the card game is played is by each player having 8000 points, monsters can attack directly and monsters over 4 stars requires at least one tribute. There are some other rules. The original rules, according to the TV series is that each player starts with 2000 points, monsters cannot attack directly and any monster can be summoned to the field, reguardless of stars. One of the oddest ways to play the game is the rules from the Playstation game Forbidden Memories. Each player starts with 8000 points, but you will have low-level monsters in your hand. In order to summon more powerful monsters to the field, you must combine your low-level cards to make more powerful ones. Such as Griggle + M-Warrior = Bean Soldier.

Okay, I know the rules, but what about the anime itself? 4Kids entertainment has butchered this series more than they should of. Certain names are kept such as Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba, but some of the name changes are really obvious such as Hiroto Honda changed to Tristan Taylor and Anzu Mazaki to Tea Gardener. Even worse, all of the cards have been digitally edited so the picture takes up 3\4 of the card and the bottom just states the Japanese character. This doesn't make sense why they would do this since the original Japanese version is almost exactly like the cards Konami produced for the U.S. Also, even the lightest violence such as shoving, punching, kicking, throwing and little nicks on the face have been edited out, which is a drag since Yugi's two male companions are mainly high school rebels. Even some of the card monsters have been edited. For instances, Harpie Lady originally wears a two-piece skimpy top, but in the American version, it is digitally edited to a one-piece!

Then there is the manga. In America, Viz picked this up quickly and runs the manga uncut out of Shonen Jump. This manga, however, is not geared towards children, well, at least not the minds of American children. There is one issue in which Yugi puts a thug in an uncomfortable situation as he balances a lit lighter on the thugs hand that is currently pouring booze. Not to mention some outrageous violence and some perverted jokes. Looking back on the manga, Yu-Gi-Oh seems more intended for a shonen audiance.

However, for all those who think this will just saturate children's minds like PokeMon which was nothing more than cute fluff, Yu-Gi-Oh is actually educating children. How? While playing the card game, children must know how to do math and be able to tally their HP to Life Points and do the math. There are plenty of challeges for the kids such playing the Time Wizard and then which ever side a coins lands on, the loser must discard all his monsters and dectuct have of each monsters HP from their Life Points. Don't think American hasn't taken note of Yu-Gi-Oh's success. The government is now running Yu-Gi-Oh anti-drug ads (though I don't know how much good they'll do).

Overall, Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't seem to be that bad of an anime, manga and card game. I'm glad that something this interesting has taken the place of the PokeMon craze. Many insult it and find it to be too childish since it is geared towards the American youth audiance. If 4Kids had not butchered the show, I guarentee this would be more popular with teenagers.

-- Mark McPherson 24th May 04