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This year we have two anniversaries to celebrate involving one great artist. The first reason to celebrate is that this year marks the
25th year that Kazuki Takahashi has been in the anime (Japanese cartoon) business. He began his foray into the animation world in
1982 and had minor success with "Tokio no Tsuma" and "Tennenshokudanji Buray," but it wasn't until 1996, when his creativity truly
blossomed and he struck gold with the Yu-Gi-Oh series, which he originally titled "Magic and Wizards," but then changed it's name
for the anime. The word "Yu-Gi-Oh" is Japanese and it literally means "game king." When he first started writing about Yu-Gi-Oh,
published in the magazine Shonen Jump, he hadn't intended on staying so long with the cards, planning on phasing them out as he
did with all the other games he had introduced to that point in the Yu-Gi-Oh comic. However, Shonen Jump had such a great
response to the cards, that Takahashi continued to write more about them, and has created thousands of cards to date, each set
of cards the duelists use representing their personality (Weevil Underwood is annoying, so he's got an insect deck, Joey Wheeler's
a fighter, so he has a warrior deck). Takahashi loves games and believes that a game is more enjoyable when it is being played
against a real person, instead of a computer simulation, and it's easier to make friends, which is a central theme to the Yu-Gi-Oh
series as well as parts of the names of two of the characters, Yugi and Joey ("Yu-Jo" is the Japanese word for "friendship"). His
love of games can be found in many aspects of the Yu-Gi-Oh world, including the season Dawn of The Duel, which, inspired by
Takahashi's trip to Egypt, includes one of his favorite types of games, a role-playing game (RPG), which is played between the
pharaoh and evil Bakura. Takahashi also loves Mahjong, Blackjack and Shogi (Japanese Chess), no doubt influencing some of his
monster cards like Jack's Knight, Queen's Knight, and King's Knight. He also loves card games and his favorite card in the Yu-Gi-Oh
manga (Japanese comic) is the first one that he introduced, the Blue Eyes White Dragon.
The second reason we celebrate is that this past year marks the 10th anniversary of the Yu-Gi-Oh comic. The popularity of
Yu-Gi-Oh has grown so much since it's creation, that it has gone all over the world as a real card game, a japanese animated
series, an english animated series and a spin-off (GX), two english movies (Pyramid of Light, Capsule Monsters) and one japanese
movie, two spin-offs of the comic (Yu-Gi-Oh GX and Yu-Gi-Oh R), as well as several Gameboy, Gamecube, Playstation, X-Box,
Nintendo, PSP, and computer games. With animation influenced by Hirohiko Araki (the artist of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure"), the tale
of Yugi and his friends has become a worldwide phenomenon, with real cards for card play, a dice version for the Dungeon Dice
Monsters game and a capsule monsters version for the Capsule Monsters board game. The multimillion dollar-a-year game has
become so popular, that the cards can be purchased at variety stores, convenience stores, toy stores, pharmacies, grocery
stores, chain stores, gas stations, vending machines, restaurants, on-line stores, and more. Players can trade cards on-line and in
person and can win rare cards, computers, and trophies at tournaments all over the world. These rare cards are so expensive, that
they can sell for thousands of dollars on the internet. As if that weren't enough, counterfeiting has become a serious problem. Buyers beware!
Seeing as these are such special anniversaries, celebrating Kazuki Takahashi's 25 years in the animation business and Yu-Gi-Oh's
10th year brightening up our lives, it was thought that this would be the perfect time to thank Mr. Takahashi for all of his wonderful
work. Let us be the first to congratulate Yu-Gi-Oh's creator on what an amazing job he has done, and how he has enriched all of our
lives. We can see the influence he has had on us by how many of us are walking around with duel disks and pretending we are one of
his characters, or how many of us, regardless of gender or age, show up at tournaments to play against other humans and make
friends, just as Takahashi wants us to. We feel the influence by the excitement we get when we open up one of the packs from one of
the more than twenty-five booster sets and find the cards that we were looking for, or when we purchase the collector tins, structured
decks, tournament packs or promo cards. He influences us through the imagination we use to write fictional stories about our favorite
characters, or the talent we use to draw some of the monsters and their duelists. So proud are we that we submit them to magazines
and post them on the internet so that others may enjoy our ideas with us. We build web sites about our favorite production and set up
fan clubs so we can chat on-line about what happened today on the show. Let's not forget the influence that Yu-Gi-Oh has had at all
the animation conventions all over the world, where people dress up as their favorite characters (cos play). Many times, there will be
several people dressed as duelist Yami Yugi, Seto Kaiba and Marik Ishtar wandering around and taking pictures with duel monsters
such as Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl and Blue Eyes White Dragon. We go out to these conventions in hopes of meeting others
who share our interest, chatting with the cast and crew of the show and it's spin-off, adding to our collection (cards, dolls, toys...), and
having the time of our lives.
So, on behalf of all Yu-Gi-Oh fans everywhere as well as everyone involved in every aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh world, we thank you,
Kazuki Takahashi, for the years of enjoyment you have brought to us and look forward to many more years of dueling and trusting in
the heart of the cards.
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Another thing I've noticed is how many other productions have had an influence on the show.
How many can you name?
I'll start:
tv shows:
Jeopardy
movies:
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Alice In Wonderland
Lion King 1 & 2
Goodfellas
On the Waterfront
Scooby Doo
Celebrities:
Christopher Walken
Ben Stein
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sean Connery
Woody Allen
Don Adams
Christopher Lloyd
Mel Brooks
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unless sales of the magazine skyrocket, there will be no more issues of beckett yugioh magazine, and those
of us who subscribe to the magazine will receive beckett pokemon in its place. please let everyone know about
this and help the magazine return! you want episode reviews, you want trivia, you want olympics? tell everyone
you know to buy the beckett yugioh magazine!
marla charendoff
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