Last year, during Yu-Gi-Oh's 25th anniversary, I had planned to write a blog about the franchise and what it meant to me. Although I never got round to it, I did do a small drawing project for the first 14 days of September to celebrate, drawing pictures of some of the characters from the first seven anime series', from Yu-Gi-Oh! DM to Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS.
Though sadly, the franchise had a sudden and tragic loss back in July, when the creator and mangaka of Yu-Gi-Oh, Kazuki Takahashi, was found deceased off the coast of Nago City, in Okinawa. He was found wearing snorkelling equipment at the time and it has recently been confirmed that he died by drowning while attempting to aide in the rescue of people who were caught in a dangerous riptide.
When his death was first announced, there was an amazing outpour of condolences from people all over the world, who thanked Mr. Takahashi for his amazing work and who fondly remembered how much Yu-Gi-Oh has influenced and even changed their lives in a positive way. Ultimately, he wanted Yu-Gi-Oh to be something that brought people together, and I think he would have been happy seeing that.
Takahashi really loved games and something that has been very consistent in the theme of Yu-Gi-Oh, even through it's numerous spin-off series', is the card game being used by the characters to understand others and connect with them. They use the game to solve conflicts and differences within the stories and convey what they are feeling, which I think is one of my favourite things about it.
I can safely say that, without Yu-Gi-Oh, there would be many people who are in my life now, that wouldn't be. People I've met, both online and offline, who I wouldn't have met otherwise if it wasn't for Mr. Takahashi's creation. I also feel the series has been one of the things that has really helped in developing and improving my own artwork over time. I've been drawing the characters since as early as 2003 and have continued to enjoy illustrating the characters since, which I feel has really helped in developing drawing people... and those crazy hairstyles!
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| A Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V illustration I did as part of my 25th anniversary illustration project in Sep 2021. |
Although I've read the manga, including the manga's of the spin-offs up to Arc-V, I was first introduced to Yu-Gi-Oh through the anime. I remember first reading about it in a magazine (Sky One Magazine), citing it as the next big thing after Pokémon, so I decided to check it out when it first started airing on Sky One here in the UK. I only watched it occasionally at the time and I did find the duels, which could last for 5 or more episodes, dragged a bit, but I liked the story and the Ancient Egyptian theme to the show.
I started getting into the show more around the last arc, the Memory arc, and by this time I had also discovered the Japanese version of the show. I actually became intrigued by the Japanese version after hearing some of the Japanese soundtracks and this actually became something I've enjoyed through the various spin-offs which came after. Each series has it's own real distinct 'sound' within the background music of the show and from the first spin-off, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, I started collecting the Japanese soundtracks and I haven't missed a single one since.
I started getting more heavily into Yu-Gi-Oh from GX onwards. Thankfully, the biggest issue I had with the original, duels dragging on and spanning multiple episodes, was fixed for the spin-offs which most of the time had the same duel only lasting one or two episodes at a time, maybe occasionally 3 at the most.
I highly recommend the spin-offs if you've never really indulged in them. Each one has it's own story, theme and casts of incredibly entertaining characters.
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| Takeru (Theodore), Flame, Ai, Kusanagi (Kolter) and Yusaku from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS |
I have a lot of favourite memories from the franchise, but I think, for me, one of my stand-out memories was going to see 'The Dark Side of Dimensions' movie in the cinema. It was a real far cry from when I went to see one of the previous movies 'The Pyramid of Light'.
For the 'Pyramid of Light', I was actually one of the few adults who had gone to see it on my own, with most of the crowd being mainly adults with children, but when I went to see 'The Dark Side of Dimensions' which came around 16 or so years later, it was mainly young adults and older that were attending the screening. It made me realize that these were people who had grown up and continued to love Yu-Gi-Oh, or were maybe even revisiting it for nostalgia.
The atmosphere in the screening was like none I'd ever seen. Every single person there were getting really into the movie and even before the movie, I saw people on their phones playing 'Duel Links' or chatting in excitement.
I also attended a few Yu-Gi-Oh cosplay meets at MCM Comic Con a few times. The first time I did was so fun, myself and a friend decided to cosplay for the meet the following year. We went as Yuya and Yuto from Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. It was so much fun getting to attend the meet and do the photoshoot with other fans and cosplayers.
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| Myself as Yuya at the 2017 May London MCM Comic Con. |
To this day, I am still following Yu-Gi-Oh, especially through the anime. I'm currently watching 'Yu-Gi-Oh! GO RUSH!!' which is the most recent series that is airing. This series, which focuses more on the 'Rush Duel' version of the card game, follows the story of an alien named Yuudias Velgear, who is hoping Rush Duels will bring a peaceful end to conflict at his home, the Velgear Star Cluster.
I want to end this blog by saying thank you to Mr. Takahashi for his wonderful creation which really has brought many people together, made a lot of people happy and will hopefully continue to do so in the years ahead.
RIP.