Buckle up boys and girls, I have a fresh dose of depressing news for everyone. As you saw in the title, the creator of the famous card game Yu-Gi-Oh! Has passed away just months after Master Duel has seen worldwide success and reignited the passion for the game across the globe. Kazuki went on a snorkeling trip in the Okinawa prefecture and after some kind of diving accident, his body was later found off the coast of Japan and had been decomposing for a few days prior as there was evidence of scavenger animals. Since then, fans and those associated with the franchise around the world have chimed in to share their condolences including voice actors from the series, comic cons, artists, and regular old players of the card game like myself. 

Kazuki had a few works earlier in his career as he created several basic one-shots for Shonen Jump in the 1980’s and then a major work named Fighting Hawk in 1990. That being said he considered his works “flops” until he made you-know-what. Yu-Gi-Oh! first debuted in September of 1996 in the Shonen Jump magazine (perhaps you’ve heard of it) and ran until March of 2004. Since then the series has seen several anime spin-offs, video game releases, and related merch creations making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time at $17.1 billion. For context, this places it directly below Dungeon Fighter Online at $18 billion and right above the Peanuts comics at $16.1 billion, according to Wikipedia. If you grew up at any point post 1996, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the various childhood impacts this series had across multiple generations with the original, GX, 5Ds, Zexal, and the ones beyond that. This was a gateway anime for many people, and for others a gateway into card games. It goes to show that the right idea at the right time pitched to the right audience can give birth to a world-wide recognized concept and affect people’s lives around the world.

This squad taught me what it means to be a real duelist.

So what happens now? Well, I’ve heard rumors circulating that one reason Yu-Gi-Oh! is such a non-competitive, unbalanced mess is because Kazuki never cared that much for tournament play and didn’t want the game to be involved in it. If true, this could mean that Konami may now take the liberty of trying to balance the game so that you can’t kill someone in one turn before they even have a chance to play the damn thing, thus making it more viable as an e-sport. Still that’s merely what I’ve heard going around so I wouldn’t put too much stock in it and hope for that balance patch to come tomorrow or anything.

RIP to the true king of games.

Either way, I hope Kazuki is resting peacefully now knowing that his creation had an enormous impact on the world. The sheer amount of tributes and mourning posts that took place across Twitter and YouTube recently should be a testament to that. His legacy will no doubt continue on for years to come. For his heart was never in his body, it was in his cards. Did you watch Yu-Gi-Oh! growing up? Did you play the game, virtually or otherwise? Grab your duel disk, shuffle your deck, draw cards, and believe in the heart of the cards in the comments below!