“Yu-Gi-Oh!

Have you ever participated in a fad before? How about one where millions of

children worldwide participated in? This television series started a fad that lasted for

almost five years. For many years now, card collecting has occupied the time and money

many generations of children growing up. There were baseball cards, comic book cards,

and cards on other cartoons such as: Pokemon, Batman, and Digimon. Children also

collected cards that were depicted from unknown times of the past that involved knights,

monsters, and magicians. What makes Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, different from Pokemon,

Batman, or even X-Men? Yu-Gi-Oh! is a hit television series, trading card game, and a

worldwide selling video game, which captured many people’s attention, both children

and adults, and that’s what makes this card collecting fad unique.

Unlike Pokemon, Batman, or even X-Men, Yu-Gi-Oh! was a hit series that

actually intervened with the cards themselves. In every episode, you would see “Yugi

Moto,” the main character of Yu-Gi-Oh!, actually use Yu-Gi-Oh! cards himself, and

carry out the story line.

Now in 2006, Yu-Gi-Oh!’s time to run the mind of children has passed in

America, but it wasn’t nearly the same back in 2001. Like most fads, television was the

major key in selling the cards. On September 29, 2001, the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!

was aired on network television (Wikipedia). “Of course I tuned in to watch it, but so did

all of my friends at school, not to mention the millions of other American children”

(Vang, Success). It was a major hit and the first season of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which consisted of

forty nine episodes, was very successful.

 In the television series, there was this card game called “Duel Monsters.” It was a

game that is quite similar to the real life version of what people play today. The whole

television series revolved around this game, and built up a mighty fine story line to go

with it. “Yugi Moto” was a regular and ordinary boy. That was, until he was given an

ancient Egyptian artifact. The pyramid shaped object was known as the “Millenium

Puzzle,” which belonged to one of Egypt’s earliest pharaohs. The pharaoh‘s soul was

locked into the puzzle and his name wasn’t revealed in the first season, but in the last.

When Yugi solved the puzzle and had constructed the pyramid, he unlocked the soul of

the pharaoh, and shared his body with the pharaoh as a vessel for him. The interesting

thing about this was that in between every duel that Yugi participates in, the pharaoh’s

spirit would unlock himself and take control over the duel. As the story goes on, Yugi

finds out that there are evil forces trying to take over the world by playing this game.

Yugi’s main purpose in series is to stop the evil forces, but at the same time, try to

discover what secrets lie in his puzzle, and the origins of the pharaoh who lives inside of

his body.

Not that the television series didn’t start out good enough already, but during the

second season of Yu-Gi-Oh!, America had finally released what seemed to be a drug for

children, the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards (Anime News Network).

March 1, 2002 was the release date of Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Cards in America.

America first released the “Yugi Starter Decks” and “Kaiba Starter Decks.” Each starter

deck contained forty cards. If you were to get a “Yugi Starter Deck,” you would own a

“Dark Magician,” which was a must have because of the fact that it was Yugi’s favorite

card, and children usually want to look at themselves as the hero or the good guy. But if
you were to get a “Kaiba Deck” instead you would own the “Blue Eyes White Dragon”

which was the strongest card of all cards at the time.

Also released at the same time as the two starter decks, were the promotional

booster packs known as Metal Raiders and Legend of Blue Eyes. Of these two booster

packs, the Legend of Blue Eyes packs were the most profitable and top selling packs of

Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Not that it was really any better than the other, but it was because of

the fact that if you were to buy a pack, you could have the chance of owning and

collecting all five pieces of “Exodia,” which consisted of “Left Leg of the Forbidden

One, Left Arm of the Forbidden One, Right Leg of the Forbidden One, Right Arm of the

Forbidden One, and Exodia, the Forbidden One.” The special thing about these cards is

that whenever in a duel, if you are to hold all five cards in your hand, no matter what

situation, you would win automatically. These cards were so rare that back in 2002, one

of the legs or arms would be worth up to or over one hundred dollars depending on its

condition. But the “Exodia, the Forbidden One” Yu-Gi-Oh! card alone was worth up to

twice as much, estimating up to two hundred dollars or even more.

It seemed that these cards really did have magic powers. This card collecting

game drove the minds of millions of children, and by the end of the year, the cards used

their magic to help launch the net revenues of 4Kids Entertainment. On December 31,

2002, 4Kids Entertainment had totaled their net revenues to be $25,901,000, which was

an increase compared to $10,250,000 from the year before (Anime News Network).

Also, in 2002, Yu-Gi-Oh! had emerged to be the top television program for boys.

“Compared to X-Men, where you would see a lot of action, it wasn’t as nearly as
stimulating for the mind as what Yu-Gi-Oh! stored” (Vang, Alvin). In successful fads,

what comes after the cards?

During the growth of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Konami, the gaming industry which produces

Yu-Gi-Oh! games and other video games, had launched Yu-Gi-Oh! video games into the

homes and hands of many children. The most popular, was Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden

Memories, which was released in 2003 for the Playstaion One console. Something that

was the buying for the games was because of their bonus packages. Along with a Yu-Gi-

Oh! video game, you would be getting three limited cards, that could only be collected if

you bought the game that came with the cards. This idea was also used for the movie. In

2006, Konami announced that they had sold over 17.5 million copies of Yu-Gi-Oh! video

games (Wikipedia).

Yu-Gi-Oh! made the largest impact on life for children ever since Pokemon. Yu-

Gi-Oh! was the number one fad back in 2001 as well. The television series was named

the number one hit television series for boys in 2002 (Anime News Network). In 2003,

Yu-Gi-Oh! came into the homes of thousands of children and was being controlled by a

remote controller. In 2004, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards became one of the top and well-known

collectors items. However, this amazing streak had finally come to a down point in 2005.

Now, I come to school every day and see that of the whole school, only some

bring their Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to school and play. The tournament, which I will hold, is

simply a Yu-Gi-Oh! get together, where I try to get as many Yu-Gi-Oh! duelists possible,

and give them a fun tournament. This will not be something easy to do, especially when

its been about four years since Yu-Gi-Oh!’s high point. However, in doing this, I will

resurrect for one day, the once before, best and most collected game, and try to make that
moment, some people’s aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s high point. Yu-Gi-Oh! was a great and

unique fad that consisted of a hit television series which stayed on air for five straight

years, a trading card game which contains over five hundred cards, and a great video

game which were sold worldwide and had over 17.5 million copies sold.