The Yu-Gi-Oh! fanbase is like a venn diagram – one circle contains fans of the manga and anime, another contains fans of the Trading Card Game, and within these circles lies an intersection where the two overlap. This split between two story and TCG fans exists in many TCGs, but it is especially prominent in Yu-Gi-Oh!. For businesses aiming to appeal to this franchise’s fans, it’s extremely important to distinguish between the different connections these fans have to the franchise.
Welcome to the second article on our series on love and oshikatsu culture in TCG fandoms, where I examine the collecting cultures of the world’s top 3 TCG fandoms – Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon – to see what drives their fans towards collectible oshikatsu merch and behaviours.
To recap, oshikatsu refers to the activities that people do to support something that they love. The ‘oshi’ that you want to support can range from real idols and fictional characters to animals or inanimate objects, while the ‘katsu’ (activities) you do encompasses transformative fanworks, collecting and curating merch, organising community events and more. For TCGs, oshikatsu may be seen in how some collectors buy cards not for gameplay purposes, but to collect a character they love.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is like a middle ground between MtG and Pokémon when it comes to oshikatsu culture. Like MtG players, YGO TCG players collect cards based on playability rather than collectability – something that’s especially necessary considering how fast the meta changes. However, the YGO fanbase also has plenty of collectible merch outside of the TCG to support a thriving oshikatsu culture. Think statues, standees, plushies, blindbox pins, anime-themed cafes, etc. What’s more, the fandom produces plenty of transformative fanworks such as fanart and fanfiction. Like Pokémon, this culture emerges from YGO’s accessible and inspiring stories.
The original Yu-Gi-Oh! series by Kazuki Takahashi is a compelling story about the power of relationships between people and how they affect our identities and futures, with different philosophies tested through the medium of games. Complex and entertaining main characters navigate challenging circumstances with undying devotion to their loved ones – making self-sacrificial moves or pursuing more power to protect the people they hold dear. Tossing in themes of possession, obsession, reincarnation, societal roles and destiny, there is no shortage of literary analysis one could make for this story.
With such a strong narrative as the basis of the franchise, most Yu-Gi-Oh! fans would be familiar with and interested in the story and its characters. The story also provides a starting point of curiosity for people to get interested in the TCG, which was initially created from the story. Thus, even if the TCG players collect cards more as game pieces rather than oshikatsu, collectible character merch is constantly being made to cater to the fans of the series.
As a recent Yu-Gi-Oh! fan, I too have participated in oshikatsu in its fandom. An unexpected obsession with Jonouchi Katsuya as a character has made me contemplate opening blind bags on a dusty anime store shelf just to get a standee with decent art of him. I’ve written a 2.6k word literary essay analysing Jonouchi’s cards for fun, then proceeded to write poetry about his relationship with Yugi and Yami Yugi inspired by his self-sacrificial tendencies. Every time I go online, I stare in envious longing at the fans in Japan and China who have whole collections of standees and other Jonouchi merch, even having their fanart displayed across giant screens for conventions. And when Gatherers’ Tavern makes products based on Jonouchi’s monsters, I will get my hands on them if it’s the last thing I do.
For fans of the story, it’s very easy to connect with and stay interested in characters and monsters. But for those purely in the TCG space, such emotional connection isn’t as easy to establish, and they would probably think I’m deranged with the lengths I’ve gone for Jonouchi. As mentioned, the meta changes quickly, meaning that one must constantly update their deck to keep up, leading to less time forming an emotional connection to certain monsters or cards like you would in MtG commander decks. There’s also not as much focus on making artistic collectible cards like MtG and Pokémon – the focus is more on the gameplay.
As a business catering to fans of the TCG, this rapid evolution makes it a lot more difficult to design merchandise that could appeal to them. There's a reason why a lot of YGO merch focuses on favourite monsters and characters from the series – chasing the meta is not sustainable in the long run, and it appeals to the other circle of story fans. From a merch-designer's perspective, it is far more profitable, easier to choose and easier to market fan-favourite characters and monsters from the series. These character-themed items wouldn’t significantly alienate the TCG players either due to the large intersection between fans of the series and the TCG.
At Gatherers’ Tavern, we aim to show and cater to the love of those dedicated fans with our products, with our team made up of fans of YGO's story and TCG alike participating in oshikatsu in our own ways. Next time, for our final article in this series, we’ll be looking at Pokémon and how it has cultivated such a strong oshikatsu culture that its TCG has become more of a collectible than a game.
Zahra Aliyah, Gatherers' Tavern