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Yu-Gi-Oh and thoughts on nostalgia
Mar. 14th, 2021 10:38 pmIt's hard to believe it, but March is here yet again and lately I've been deep into Persona 5 Royal and fleshing out an original story I've come up with that I want to eventually either make into a graphic novel or webcomic. Depression and OCD-related rumination has been kicking my ass though, so being motivated to actually work on the story has been an uphill battle. I've had the energy to jot down some plot points and ideas, but definitely haven't been invested into full fleshing anything out.
In the midst of this depression, I've been watching a LOT of YouTube and lately stumbled upon Billiam's channel. He covers a lot of throwback electronics, toys, and TV shows from the late 90's and early to mid-2000's which was the time I spent growing up. A couple of his videos talked about Yu-Gi-Oh, which was a show I was obsessed with when I was in elementary and middle school. Lot's of cringe memories came back to me, but it was interesting learning about the backstory to the manga, anime, the card game, films, and spin-off series. Call it morbid fascination moreso than an insatiable desire to learn more about a childhood favorite.
Occasionally when I watch nostalgia-based videos like that, the comments or the creator talks about "fondly remembering" the franchise or always having a soft spot for whatever it is, and I noticed I really don't have that for Yu-Gi-Oh. I have that for Kingdom Hearts, and to a small degree Neopets, GaiaOnline, and old OC's I made back in the day, but anytime I look back at Yu-Gi-Oh - I feel no lingering connection. I collected all of the manga, collected thousands of cards that I lovingly place in binders and plastic protectors, and watched the anime anytime it came on TV. I even read and wrote fanfiction, drew fanart, and researched all of the information about the characters on the fan Wiki. However, unlike some of the other series I don't have a desire to re-visit any of it except maybe Season Zero. I tried watching some episodes of the sub to see if that made a difference since 4Kids dubs don't do much favors for any anime, but so far the only yearning it gave me was to re-watch the Abridged series by Little Kuriboh.
I think seeing the overload of cynical marketing is a primary reason I can't revisit it without feeling strangely repulsed. With Kingdom Hearts, sure it was a lot of advertisement and it had it's own gimmicky shit, but you could feel like the sincerity in the writing was coming from somewhere genuine even if it was corny and "fake deep" at times. Yu-Gi-Oh feels like it's not even trying to get anyone above the age of 10 to enjoy the series. Mediocre art and animation aside, most of the writing is too poor and lazy to even be a little bit charming or memorable. Maybe the first season had some moments - I remember as a kid being impacted by a few of the episodes of the Duelist Kingdom arc, which humanized a lot of the characters, and I kinda liked how the Battle City arc expanded upon the card game rules and went into greater depth about the lore surrounding the Millennium items, but that's about it.
I guess it's perfectly normal to move on from kid stuff, but I expected even SOME smidgen of endearing emotion towards this anime or the card game. I realized that a surge of interest in old card games has been surging a lot among millennials in my age range so maybe if I get a chance to go back to my dad's house anytime soon I can consider selling them at some point for some extra cash.
In the midst of this depression, I've been watching a LOT of YouTube and lately stumbled upon Billiam's channel. He covers a lot of throwback electronics, toys, and TV shows from the late 90's and early to mid-2000's which was the time I spent growing up. A couple of his videos talked about Yu-Gi-Oh, which was a show I was obsessed with when I was in elementary and middle school. Lot's of cringe memories came back to me, but it was interesting learning about the backstory to the manga, anime, the card game, films, and spin-off series. Call it morbid fascination moreso than an insatiable desire to learn more about a childhood favorite.
Occasionally when I watch nostalgia-based videos like that, the comments or the creator talks about "fondly remembering" the franchise or always having a soft spot for whatever it is, and I noticed I really don't have that for Yu-Gi-Oh. I have that for Kingdom Hearts, and to a small degree Neopets, GaiaOnline, and old OC's I made back in the day, but anytime I look back at Yu-Gi-Oh - I feel no lingering connection. I collected all of the manga, collected thousands of cards that I lovingly place in binders and plastic protectors, and watched the anime anytime it came on TV. I even read and wrote fanfiction, drew fanart, and researched all of the information about the characters on the fan Wiki. However, unlike some of the other series I don't have a desire to re-visit any of it except maybe Season Zero. I tried watching some episodes of the sub to see if that made a difference since 4Kids dubs don't do much favors for any anime, but so far the only yearning it gave me was to re-watch the Abridged series by Little Kuriboh.
I think seeing the overload of cynical marketing is a primary reason I can't revisit it without feeling strangely repulsed. With Kingdom Hearts, sure it was a lot of advertisement and it had it's own gimmicky shit, but you could feel like the sincerity in the writing was coming from somewhere genuine even if it was corny and "fake deep" at times. Yu-Gi-Oh feels like it's not even trying to get anyone above the age of 10 to enjoy the series. Mediocre art and animation aside, most of the writing is too poor and lazy to even be a little bit charming or memorable. Maybe the first season had some moments - I remember as a kid being impacted by a few of the episodes of the Duelist Kingdom arc, which humanized a lot of the characters, and I kinda liked how the Battle City arc expanded upon the card game rules and went into greater depth about the lore surrounding the Millennium items, but that's about it.
I guess it's perfectly normal to move on from kid stuff, but I expected even SOME smidgen of endearing emotion towards this anime or the card game. I realized that a surge of interest in old card games has been surging a lot among millennials in my age range so maybe if I get a chance to go back to my dad's house anytime soon I can consider selling them at some point for some extra cash.
