The social commentary in Yu-Gi-Oh! and similar works: my thoughts
Anyone who's watched Yu-Gi-Oh! at least once will have been mystified by either one thing or the other (or both) whether they were fans or not: the amount of trash talk that goes on in an otherwise mundane trading card game, or how seriously Joe Public takes the whole game throughout the course of the story.
But then something hit me. Isn't that exactly what we in our society do with out national sport? So many people make fun of Yu-Gi-Oh! for having characters who go around beating each other up to get a rare card off someone, or poking fun at anyone who doesn't know how to activate the Black Luster Ritual card, but is that any different to the way non-football fans in England get alienated from their peers? Is the fighting over rare cards (or using them to destroy the world) any different to football hooliganism? And is this "passion" that football fans in my country yammer on about any different to the passion of those attending Duel Monsters tournaments that they so love to call sad?
Plenty of football fans gave me a lot of crap in school for liking Pokemon, which again in its own respective fictional universe was serious business, when in the end it's nothing more than a game, a pastime in either realm.
My conclusion is thus: Yu-Gi-Oh! has an underlying message saying "Look at yourself! You're making such a big deal out of a simple competition between two sides, then making fun of others for being the same! God you're selective! Beware you sneaks! Hooligans! Hypocrites!"
Discuss.
