On March 8 2002, Japanese entertainment conglomerate and video game company Konami partnered with private trading cards company Upper Deck to release “Legend Of Blue Eyes White Dragon” — the first set in the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game (TCG). Since then, it has been through eight incarnations, with each one popularizing a different style of play.
The original series began in 1996 when Kazuki Takahashi published the original Yu-Gi-Oh chapters in Shonen Jump magazine — a weekly magazine aimed at young adults. The manga centers around Yugi Muto, a bullied kid that receives an ancient Egyptian puzzle from his grandfather called the Millenium Puzzle. Solving the puzzle allows him to transform into a former pharaoh known as Atem, a prodigy that seeks revenge against those who exploit the weak. In order to do this, he challenges them to various games and punishes them when they lose.
Originally, the manga only delved into toys, including yo-yos and Tamagotchis. However, this all changed when chapter nine introduced Seto Kaiba — a rich and pretentious card player. The marketing opportunities that emerged from the trading card game within the story increased the manga’s popularity, and it was quickly modified to focus on it, with Kaiba as Yugi’s main rival.
Yu-Gi-Oh is now one of the most popular TCGs in the world, and it is unique among card games because it does not have a resource system like Pokemon or Magic the Gathering.
Players — known as duelists — start with 40-60 card decks and 8,000 life points. Duelists summon monsters to a field. Each monster has attack points that players can use to damage their opponents’ life points. Players may also activate monster effects, as well as spell and trap cards, which usually provide benefits such as damaging an opponent and drawing cards. The first player to lose all of their life points loses overall.
The game has multiple levels of play. More casual players can play “Kitchen Table Yu-Gi-Oh” or “Playground Yu-Gi-Oh” at home with their siblings or friends. Slightly more advanced players might want to go to a local card shop (LCS) to compete in a local tournament, where duelists pay a small fee to play against other players.
LCSs that are affiliated with Konami — or more commonly known as Official Tournament Stores (OTS) — give out special packs as prizes, containing exclusive cards to each player who signs up. There are additional prizes for the top players. Konami also organizes Regional Qualifiers, which are tournaments that allow players to compete in the World Championship if they reach a higher placement. The World Championship is the highest level of play in the game and the world’s best duelists compete for the title of King of Games.
The game’s first iteration, known as the “Duel Monsters” era, has a corresponding anime adaption that was developed by Gallop Studios and TV Tokyo. It focuses on the trading card game, called “Duel Monsters” in this universe. Yugi must use the pharaoh to fight in Duel Monsters tournaments while he searches for his lost memories. Along the way, they battle various villains with ambitions ranging from reviving an ancient civilization to world domination. Meanwhile, Kaiba constantly attempts to beat Yugi through the tournaments that they enter. The series ends with Atem battling Yugi, returning his memories and releasing him from the Millenium Puzzle.
After the original series concluded, new generations of the franchise were released, with each introducing or popularizing elements of the trading card game. So far, there have been eight different tv shows in the franchise. The seventh series, “Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens,” is currently airing on Disney XD.
Yu-Gi-Oh also has several video game adaptations. Earlier games played with the TCG’s mechanics. These included elemental affiliations and removing elements of the game. However, the modern adaptations are usually more faithful to the source material.
Currently, there are three video games that Konami supports. One of them is Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links, a mobile game that simplifies the TCG and adds aspects of the anime to the game, such as characters, a 4,000 life point meter and abilities based on famous anime scenes. There is also Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, a cross-play game based directly on the TCG, and Yu-Gi-Oh Cross Duel, a multiplayer-oriented game.
The franchise is also prevalent because of a fan project called “Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series.” This comedic, satirical series was created by the YouTube channel LittleKuriboh in 2006. Currently, the series has 84 episodes. It gave way to the “Abridged Series” genre of videos — shortened, humorous versions of prominent anime, such as Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and Sword Art Online.
The Yu-Gi-Oh franchise has been around for many years and is enjoying a new wave of popularity. While fans still mourn the death of Kazuki Takashi who died in a shark attack on July 4, 2022 they continue to look forward to the future of the franchise.
Bailey Kanthatham is an Entertainment Contributing Writer. He can be reached at bkanthat@uci.edu.