Kazuki Takahashidied this hebdomad . The creator of the Yu - Gi - Oh manga , anime , and trading card game , he was an artist who meant a great deal to me . A strange and surprising grief fall when I heard the news program , both for the human himself , only 60 days one-time , and for his plot . With his death , I feel the final loss of an essential part of my puerility , one that had been err out for some time . Though I still have the carte du jour , the family relationship I had with the game as a teenager is unapproachable now , much like childhood itself .
Yu - Gi - Oh was my favorite game in my former teen — lonely queer year when Yugi Moto ’s cadre of friends seemed like my own . On certain days , they felt like my only I . I memorize cards ’ names and effects alone in my elbow room for many hours every weekend . With each new card and jazz group in my cranial database came new way to enter in the show ’s titanic matchups between characters , as the “ Duel Monsters”trading batting order gameis the bailiwick of the gum anime itself . My greatest thrill was identify an extremist - rare “ Thousand - Eyes Restrict ” in a random protagonist ring , the pate jewel in the pack of cards of the first season ’s flamboyant villain , Maximillion Pegasus .
I watched the show , bring the wit biz , and read the manga . I was awed by the power of summoning a sleek magician or a dominant dragon with the dramatic flip of a card . I get laid the idea that a more thoroughgoing committal to memory of rules , cards , and arcana than my opponent ’s would lead to victory . As a stripling , I was bookish and shy of face-off , prone to leaving dexterity unanswered , but I could make out and invoke rules made by other .
Photo: Timothy Tsui/Wikimedia Commons (Fair Use)
Even in its earliest iteration , Yu - Gi - Oh was complicated and tremendous . You could jest it is a game for lawyers . In the abstract , the goal is to know the prescript so well as to bend them to your own end using the powers and effects of various cards . Though you draw from the same finite reservoir of add-in exhaust by Konami , you may outfox your adversary with your own cunning , signature combinations . When Icovered a tribulation for the first time , I was struck by the law of similarity between the weaponization of the admit evidence and the deployment of just the right teras calling card at just the right time .
In its simple summary , the secret plan goes like this : using three classes of cards — monsters , spells , and traps — you must reduce your opposer ’s life points to zero or empty their deck . There are certain card effects whose weather condition activate a winnings , the most noted being Exodia , the backbone of Yugi ’s victory in the first episode of the anime . You may have between 40 and 60 card in your deck of cards . hooking five cards to begin the secret plan and one at the starting signal of each act . Monsters can attack your opponent ’s monstrosity or their animation dot ; they can alike defend your own life points . Specific phases of each good turn allow for playing spells , mark traps , summoning ogre , activate monsters ’ burden , or engaging your opponents ’ monsters in battle .
Konami , the proprietor of Yu - Gi - Oh ’s intellectual property , described the game as a universe unto itself in a statement on Takahashi ’s death . I feel much the same . When the game was at its good , its depths seemed unfathomable .
“ We are shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Mr. Kazuki Takahashi . We are deep thankful for the wonderful ‘ Yu - Gi - Ohio ! ’ universe that he has created , and our thoughts are with his booster and class at this difficult metre . Together with his countless fans , we pledge to carry on the ‘ Yu - Gi - Oh ! ’ bequest with all the beloved and upkeep it deserves , ” the affirmation reads .
Three age ago , my parent moved out of my childhood home in Dallas . I return from San Francisco to find a automobile . My female parent asked me to sort the belongings I had left behind into stacks label “ keep ” and “ toss . ” I procrastinated the categorization . The night before she and I exit Dallas to drive back to San Francisco , I stayed up all Nox nail her chore . I played “ For All That I Am , ” a mournful pop electronic jamming by the Abba knockoff grouping A*Teens . It was the soundtrack to the same period of my lifetime as Yu - Gi - Oh . I blasted the song on repeat so much that in one nighttime it became my third - most - take heed to birdsong of the twelvemonth . “ Toss ” turned out to comprehend most of what I owned , as I lived in a 12 ’ x 12 ’ elbow room in San Francisco . I decide to keep the card , though , even as I jettisoned all my Spider - Man and Spawn action number , Pokémon Yellow and Gold Gameboy cartridges , my copies of I , Robot and Redwall , and all of my other young wonk treasures . I loved all of those things , but I loved the add-in the most . I was surprised at the depth of my attachment to them . Holding them brought back warm store of how intensely they sparked my imagination .
Instagram allowed me to feed that hungry , sting nostalgia , to cultivate the pain consociate with it . The emotional reaction is the same : see a card I am not intimate with , wonderment at its intricacies , and remember . I followed both meme accounts and accounts that show picture of bill of fare . The card accounts showed me that Yu - Gi - Buckeye State had badly succumbed topower creepsince I had last played . New card became so overpower , their mechanics so byzantine , as to overshadow my erstwhile decks . Multiple newfangled classes of monsters had appeared and asserted primacy . The biz as it exist now is unrecognizable to me , the cards I once prized now looked whacky and infantile . They are knives in a bazooka conflict . Thousand - Eyes Restrict pay way to the more various and brawny “ Millennium - Eyes Restrict , ” a bill of fare that never appeared in the show .
Lest you think I am simply whining that thing are not the same as they once were ( I am , though ) , let me show you that I am not alone : “ Yu - Gi - Oh Then Vs Now ” is a well - trod meme that still racks up meg of views on YouTube . It is not uncommon for skilled player on the tournament lap to succeed on the first tour if they pull the right first deal from the right deck . By line , the anime showcased prolonged duels with many turns , each one a Modern and revealing twist .
Just as Yu - Gi - Oh had moved aside from me , I had moved aside from Yu - Gi - Oh . I had become more interested in school and writing . The show terminate . I could n’t chance opponents to duel as my classmates grew erstwhile . I beat the GameBoy simulations of Yugi ’s most legendary duels . I once craft a trading menu biz on notebook computer paper in court , as I feel Yu - Gi - Oh ’s relevancy slip . The plot and I had produce apart as I we both go sr. , as if we were friends who changed and fell out of touch . recognize that loss — that it would be out of the question to repair the felicity I felt while dueling ever again — was a surprising sort of heartache . I mourned a relationship with something that had never been live , but brought me consolation like a living friend .
We lose the things we loved in puerility ; it is inevitable as nighttime . As grownup we cradle them and wish for the joyousness they brought us to return . Perhaps we long for the gay circumstance of carefree childhood , perhaps we pine for the escapes we found from burdened ones . My nostalgia for Yu - Gi - Oh falls among the latter . So it go , and we move on .
Now Kazuki Takahashi is gone , the adult male who made all that potential , and the coffin lid over this exceptional corner of my own life has notch another nail . My memories of Yu - Gi - Oh will only fade further into the past . May those recall rest in peace , as may Takahashi .
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