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Showing posts from January, 2022

A Corporate Blunder, or How Konami Managed to Dominate Yu-Gi-Oh! Game Licensing (Part 1)

With Bandai in control of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Collectable Card Game (CCG) license, one must wonder how Konami managed to get said license from Bandai in a few months after their card game’s release? To answer this, we must first answer this important question: How did Konami become involved with Yu-Gi-Oh! in the first place? Answering this requires knowing about the loser in this 1998 affair. Bandai began as the toy division of a textile company which spun off as Bandai-ya in 1950. Founded by Naoharu Yamashina , they spent the 1950s as a successful toy company which produced basic toys like the defective Rhythm Ball and toy cars like the 1956 Toyopet Crown . In 1961, Bandai-ya would rebrand into Bandai and would gain massive success with making Astro Boy toys. This completely changed Bandai’s business model from making their own creations to supporting new television shows as a sponsor so they could show commercials of their tie-in toys during their run. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Bandai CCG was likely

Early YGO

Yu-Gi-Oh! (遊☆戯☆王 means King of Games in Japanese) first began as a manga serialized by Weekly Shonen Jump from September 14, 1996 to March 8, 2004. It told the story of Yugi Mutou ( 武藤 ( むとう ) 遊戯 ( ゆうぎ ) Mutō Yūgi ) who loved games but was bullied at his school. One night, Yugi completed the mysterious and supposedly unsolvable Millennium Puzzle ( 千 ( せん ) 年 ( ねん ) 錐 ( すい ) or 千 ( せん ) 年 ( ねん ) パッズル Sennen Sui or Sennen Pazzuru ) . In the process, he would become host to an amnesiac spirit known as Dark Yugi that would appear whenever Yugi or his friends were threatened. Eventually, Dark Yugi's origins as the Nameless Pharaoh are discovered and his friends attempt to help him discover who he actually was. For over a year, the manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump. Then, sometime in late 1997 and early 1998, Toei Animation received the rights to create an anime version of the manga that fans call Season Zero , though they aren't the same series. It ran from April 4, 1998 to October

OCG

This is the official abbreviation for Duel Monsters in Asia. It's also known as the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG. Although it is the official name, the abbreviations "Yu-Gi-Oh" 「遊戯王」and "Yu-Gi-Oh Cards"「遊戯王カード」are more commonly used in Japan.. This abbreviation is often used to distinguish the cards from those appearing in manga, anime, and games that have different rules and specifications. Similarly, it is used to distinguish between the YU-GI-OH! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) and the Japanese version. Other products in regions where KONAMI has consistently marketed them are officially called "YU-GI-OH Official Card Game (OCG)". Since September 1, 2013, a different list of Forbidden Limited cards have been applied in the TCG, but in the regions where the OCG is sold, the same list as Japan's Forbidden/Limited List is applied. The OCG has jurisdiction over multiple countries in Asia.  Japan - The original location and home of the game.  South Korea - As the Korean OCG