All
I Want for Christmas Is Some Yu-Gi-Oh!
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September
24, 2002
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| This week Dragonball returns
to the top slot on the Lycos 50, but it is another Japanese
cartoon that makes the most impressive move. Yu-Gi-Oh!
has arrived in the top ten at #9, and Yu-Gi-Oh! merchandise
looks to be the hot Christmas gift of 2002.
When we first wrote about Yu-Gi-Oh!
in April, we asked if this Japanese cartoon would flame
out like other Japanese anime (Outlaw Star, for
example) or become the next Dragonball. It looks more
like the next Pokemon, however. Yu-Gi-Oh! has a
younger audience than Dragonball, and like Pokemon the
searches revolve more around the card game than around
the television show.
That makes sense since, as we pointed
out back then, Yu-Gi-Oh! is the first "meta-anime." It
is the logical conclusion of the collectible card game
phenomenon, because the show is actually about the card
game instead of the card game being about the show.
With Pokemon, kids played a card
game so they could identify with kids who fought monsters.
Now, kids play a card game so they can identify with kids
playing a card game that simulates fighting monsters.
There is a deconstructionist postgraduate thesis hidden
in here somewhere.
The new season of Yu-Gi-Oh! on the
WB network started September 14, and the show is now on
seven days a week. The first Yu-Gi-Oh! video and DVD hits
stores today. New booster card packs were released this
month. There is even a CD coming out in October called
Music to Duel By¸ featuring such song titles as
"One Card Short." This is sure to drive carpooling soccer
moms completely insane within weeks.
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