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Magic
This Space |
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Baneful's Column From
Gargoyles to Anthropomorphic Airplanes Pojo's Card of the Day for Obedience Schooled inspired me
to write this article. Particularly, the reviewer Christian
Moss talks about the card's art work being completely
different than that of cards in the old classic days (2002).
And he's totally right. A card like that with cartoony bears
and such would have never made the cut back in the old days.
To put it briefly, the game changed from scary to cute.
The "modern" YGO monster looks more like: Gyroid,
Elemental Hero Bubbleman, Madolche Puddingcess and Crystal
Beast Ruby Carbuncle. I've noticed this change in Pokemon,
as well. Look at the final evolved forms of Pokemon like
Charizard and Blastoise. Fast forward to the cuter and
leaner final forms of today. The same applies to YGO. It's a
new era. Big, or scary isn't necessary anymore. In the first few booster sets, YGO tried to go for
literal monsters: scary creatures in scary environments.
They were grounded in tropes from horror, old religions and
such. Now, they are often silly and derived from just about
anything. Today, we still call monsters monsters, but that's
just nominal. I wouldn't call Don Zaloog, Outstanding Dog
Marron or Noble Knight Peredur "monsters" per se. We've gone from gargoyles to anthropomorphic airplanes
and the change isn't a coincidence. There's a divide between old classic cards (2002-2004)
and more modern cards (2005- onward). And yes, there have
been exceptions. There still were some delicate non-imposing
monsters back then and there are still some frightening ones
today, but the overall change (over time) can be noted. An
example:Toon monsters from the 3rd booster set Magic Ruler.
Yes, they were cartoony, but that's exactly whats disturbing
about them. At the time, they were eerie because they looked
totally alien to what we had expected. They didn't really
belong. If they came about today, they would fit right at
home. This shift is not without it's share of good reasons. First, is the acknowledgement of the American audience.
Initally, YGO was a Japanese phenomenon until Konami
realized that selling this card game to Western countries
could be a lucrative endeavor. And how Konami toned down the
seriousness and scariness of their cards well reflects that.
Not to say us Americans don't like the violence. We have our
Terminator movies, Call of Duty games and lots of explicit
lyrics in our music. But it's the occultic themes that can turn people away
faster than drawings of soldiers with guns. Bringing dark
religious undertones, especially ones that lots of people
may consider satanic, into a children's card game just
wasn't worth it. Konami wanted to sell an entertainment
product – not engage in political dialogue. Also, it's worth
noting the difference between a teenage audience of 17 year
olds and a really young audience of 10 year olds. A teen is a bit more discerning and can judge whether
they want to join the game based on it's core mechanics.
Young kids are different. It all depends on marketing and
exposure. Whatever looks cool at first glance will sell. You
just couldn't make commercials of gargoyles assaulting
elvish warriors in a medieval castle and expect the average
8 year old to care. So YGO used an anime to advertise, which is an inherently
more visual medium than a manga comic book. The original
series was a bit dissonant. It wanted a colorful loveable
approach, with cartoony characters. (To be fair, a
realistic-looking medieval fantasy TV cartoon show wasn't
feasible at the time.) Even with the color, though, the
grisly looking demonic monsters remained. They were color
saturated to look less disturbing. Also, some goofy comedic moments and ridiculously
over-the-top acting added some levity. The original series
never even touched on the dark subtext of the original manga
until the last season. Then, with Yu-Gi-Oh GX (5D and Zexal,
as well) forward, Kazuki Takahashi (the creator of the game)
decided to close the gap. From then (around 2005) on, the
game got brighter and more imaginative. Another reason? The game needed to be spiced up. There
are about 50 booster sets. A bit after the first 10, and a
lot after the first 20, they changed it up. I couldn't
imagine them stretching the "medieval castle with monsters
and torture chambers inside" concept for 3000 more cards,
anyway. There's a need for constant novelty, even if the
gameplay mechanics stay the same because they work. I didn't
think 10 years later I would be dueling with Madolche
deck-types, imagining a mansion maids defending my life
points, lobbing baked good at dragons and warriors. And that's what makes this game so great. You get lots of
choice and variety. You can use scary monsters like
Helpoemer in your deck and cute little creatures like
Drillroid in there too. Or, something in between like
Marauding Captain. Don't get me wrong; I have a fondness for
the old nostalgic art. But the sheer scope of what
this game could encompass was only made clear after the
often-corny YGO GX challenged us to "get our game on". There are so many cliches in card and board games:
zombies, skeletons, knights, dragons, temptresses, potions,
spells, torture devices. YGO was following the examples set
for it at first, but then, by realizing it's audience, it
also realized that it could expand well beyond those tropes.
And in doing so, the old starter decks still have their
value, as those darker cards haven't been often copied or
burnt out to death. When it comes to theme and style, Yu-Gi-Oh has made a 180
degree turn in the other direction. It went from dark and
scary to colorful and cutsey. It strayed away from its
roots, and in most contexts, this would be a bad thing. But,
in fact, it's not bad at all. It's a good thing. It's what
set the game apart from the crowd and allowed it to become
what it is today. Contact:
banefulscolumn@gmail.com
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