Last Thursday (7) Kazuki Takahashi, creator of the manga YuGiOh!, which spawned the anime, TCG and video game classic, was found dead. The work, which initially didn’t focus on the card game, was the basis for one of the world’s greatest exponents of Japanese geek culture, who forged an empire worth US$17.1 billion (about R$90 billion).
1 of 5 Kazuki Takahashi is the creator of the YuGiOh! — Photo: Photo: Jody Cortes/Reproduction
Kazuki Takahashi is the creator of the YuGiOh! — Photo: Photo: Jody Cortes/Reproduction
Kazuki Takahashi started his career as a manga artist in 1982 but didn’t achieve much visibility with his early works. The author himself even called the first works a “total disgrace” in an interview with Time For Kids magazine in 2002.
First published in 1996 in Weekly Shonen Jump, YuGiOh! Put Takahashi in the spotlight. The story tells the adventures of Yugi Muto, a boy who assembled the Millennium Puzzle and awakened a ghost with the personality of a skilled gamer, participating in various games throughout the storyline.
YuGiOh! gradually gained notoriety. However, unlike the anime portrayal, the manga did not immediately focus on the card game, which was introduced throughout the storyline as just another game for Yugi to win.
2 of 5 Scene from the YuGiOh! — Photo: Disclosure
Scene from the anime YuGiOh! — Photo: Disclosure
The YuGiOh! was introduced in the manga under the name “Magic and Wizards” in reference to the classic “Magic: The Gathering”. The card game stood out within the magazine and appeared very often in subsequent issues, largely due to fan demand.
This success motivated Takahashi to make the card game the focus of the manga. In 1999, the physical collectible version of the card game titled YuGiOh! Trading Card Game”, which became an absolute sales success worldwide. In 2000, the anime YuGiOh! Duel Monsters, which aired 224 episodes through September 2004 and cemented the franchise as one of the topgrossing Japanese works in the world.
YuGiOh! trading card game
It’s safe to say that the YuGiOh! is the most successful part of the entire franchise. Released by Konami in 1999, the game was a huge hit in Japan and was released in the United States in 2002.
3 of 5 Dark Mage and other cards from YuGiOh! — Photo: Reproduction
Black Mage and other cards from YuGiOh! — Photo: Reproduction
On June 9, 2009, TCG was inducted into Guinness World Records as the world’s highestgrossing card game with over 22.5 billion cards sold since its inception. Currently, Konami estimates that the total number of sales has exceeded 35 billion cards.
Multiple tournaments fuel the competitive YuGiOh! TCG scene. At championships organized by Konami, the winners receive valuable playing cards as prizes. The final YuGiOh! The World Championship, held in 2019, was awarded the ultrarare version of the Duel Link Dragon, the Duel Dragon card, which is currently valued at around $2,000 (10,000 reais). The Tyr, the Vanquiishing Warlord card was the YuGiOh! World Cup 2008, and today it is valued at almost 200,000 dollars (1 million reais).
And there are also several YuGiOh TCG cards that are sold at ridiculous prices. Many of them aren’t necessarily powerful ingame, but they appear as valuable collectibles. An example is the “Tournament Black Luster Soldier” which sold for about $9 million (about R$47.5 million). The card is very valuable as it is the prize pool for the first official YuGiOh! by Konami in 1999.
4 out of 5 Tournament Black Gloss Soldier — Photo: Playback/eBay
Tournament Black Gloss Soldier — Photo: Reproduction/eBay
Because of its popularity, YuGiOh! led to several other works with the same title. The first anime aired in 1998 and ran for 27 episodes. But it was the cartoon titled YuGiOh! Duel Monsters, which was first released in 2002 and helped grow the franchise even further.
In YuGiOh! Duel Monsters, the focus of the work was already on the card game. Instead of playing multiple games, Yugi’s storyline revolved around the card game and its monsters. The series was a huge success and spawned several films and sequels with different protagonists, such as “YuGiOh! GX”, which, with 180 episodes, attracted a lot of attention just like the original.
YuGiOh’s work also resulted in many video games based on the card game. In total, more than 50 games have been released for a wide variety of platforms. In 1999, YuGiOh! Forbidden Memories” for the Playstation 1 was a very successful game at the time. In 2022, “YuGiOh! Master Duel, a free to play game very similar to the original TCG but in a digital way. An old wish from the community, Master Duel reached 10 million downloads in less than three months.
5 out of 5 YuGiOh! Master Duel — Photo: Disclosure / Konami
Promotional art for YuGiOh! Master Duel — Photo: Disclosure / Konami
Whether it’s through manga, TCG, anime or games, Kazuki Takahashi’s work has established himself as one of the greatest exponents of Japanese geek culture in the world and continues to move fans and gamers around the popular YuGiOh! to this day. Overall, the entire franchise is valued at nearly R$90 billion.