Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (2024)

Wikipedia has an article about Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (Abbreviated as "TCG") is the part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game manufactured by Konami, and is the best-selling card game of all time according to Guinness World Records, with over 22 billion cards sold as of August 2009.^[1] The TCG is played worldwide, but mostly in North America, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

Overview[]

The Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG was first published in 2002, with Upper Deck Entertainment acquiring the rights to market the TCG in 2000 for USD$75,000,000 from Konami.^{[citation needed]}

The agreement between Upper Deck Entertainment and Konami was due to expire in 2010. Konami issued a press release on December 10, 2008, stating that it was retaking full control of all aspects of the TCG,^[2] including:

• Distribution
• Customer Service
• Sales
• Gameplay
• Organized Play

Upper Deck Entertainment then responded by issuing a lawsuit against Konami Digital Entertainment for USD$75,001,000,^[3] citing loss of earnings and breach of contract, as Konami Digital Entertainment cut ties between itself and Upper Deck Entertainment more than a year prior to to the legal conclusion of their contract. On December 27, 2008, Konami was denied the temporary selling and shipping ban that would prevent Upper Deck from marketing, selling, distributing and providing game support for the TCG. The reason Konami was successful in terminating the agreement with Upper Deck Entertainment was because Konami accused and proved in court that Upper Deck was producing unsanctioned cards - some employees had taken some printing plates to a different printer.^{[citation needed]}

The TCG is printed in English (EN), French (FR), German (DE), Italian (IT), Portuguese (PT) and Spanish (SP). Portuguese printings had been halted for a few years after the release of Cybernetic Revolution and before the release of Cosmo Blazer. TCG cards are tournament-legal in any country where the game is played, outside of Asia. Cards from the Official Card Game (OCG), are not tournament-legal in TCG territories, even if a player attempting to use one has a translation on-hand, or the card has an officially-released TCG counterpart.

Tournaments are held each year that give out prizes which are usually rare cards or exclusive game mats. Players first start out in the Regionals and advance their way to the Championships. Shonen Jump used to host their own tournament known as the Shonen Jump Championship. There are tournaments in the OCG as well as the TCG.

Upper Deck no longer has any connection with the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, with Konami continuing tournaments.

Censorship[]

Unlike the Japanese OCG, the TCG and the Korean OCG use censorship to appeal to their international following. Censorship is both verbal and visual, to avoid connotations and imagery of nudity, overt female sexualization, references to smoking, alcoholism, death, firearms and religion. It has been reinforced in several ways, for example:

• Substituting the names of certain deities for safer ones. E.g.: "Osiris" > "Slifer".
• Translating the words for "death" or "dead" to "Des" or "doomed", or substituting them for safer ones. E.g.: Undead > Zombie, "Death Frog" > "Des Frog", "Death Sorcerer" > "Sorcerer of the Doomed", "Offering to the Dead" > "Tribute to The Doomed".
• Translating the words for "black magic" or "black magician" to "dark magic" or "dark magician". E.g.: "Black Magic" > "Dark Magic Attack", "Black Magician" > "Dark Magician"
• Translating the word for "god" to "lord" or "divine". The word "goddess", however, is still used. E.g.: GOD > DIVINE, "Spirit God" > "Elemental Lord".
• Translating the words for "saint" or "holy" to "sacred", "noble" or "mystical", or substituing them for safer ones. E.g.: "Saint Magician" > "Magician of Faith", "Saint Knight Ishzark" > "Divine Knight Ishzark", "Saint Declarer" > "Herald of Pure Light", "Holy Knight" > "Noble Knight", "Holy Elf" > "Mystical Elf".
• Translating the words for "demon" or "devil" to "fiend" or "archfiend", or substituting them for safer ones. The words "daredevil" is still used. The word for "demon" is still used in other languages due to the lack of religion-friendly words. E.g.: Demon > Fiend, "Daemon" > "Archfiend", "Devil Dragon" > "Koumori Dragon", "Core Chimail Devil" > "Koa'ki Meiru Doom".
• Translating the words for "bomb", "bomber", "gun" or "revolver" to "blast", "explosive", "salvo", "fighter", "barrel" or "blaster". The word "bombardment" is still used. E.g.: "Ally Bomb" > "Ally Salvo", "Antique Gear Bomb" > "Ancient Gear Explosive", "Gagaga Gunman" > "Gagaga Cowboy", "Gun Cannon Shot" > "Proton Blast", "Dark Dive Bomber" > "Dark Strike Fighter".
• Translating the word for "sacrifice" to "Tribute", or substituting it for safer alternatives. "Tribute" is used as a full-fledged verb, with forms like "Tributes", "Tributing" and "Tributed". E.g.: offer as a Sacrifice > offer as a Tribute, "Sacrifice" > "Relinquished".
• Giving more clothing or coverage to nude characters, or revealing outfits. E.g.: "Card of Safe Return", "Dunames Dark Witch", "Harpie Lady", "Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi", "Blazing Hiita", "The Emperor's Holiday".
• Reducing breast sizes or obscuring cleavages. E.g.: "Mystical Sand", "Gemini Elf", "Neo-Spacian Twinkle Moss".
• Editing out phallic imagery. E.g.: "Blackwing Armed Wing".
• Editing out or re-drawing imagery of the word "god", demonic horns, crosses, halos, pentagrams, hexagrams, biblical books, the Egyptian ankh, Christian nuns, Buddhist deities, etc. E.g.: "Eradicating Aerosol", "Gemini Imps", "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow", "Call of the Haunted", "Offerings to the Doomed", "Petit Angel", "Dark Magician Girl", "Exile of the Wicked", "Dian Keto the Cure Master", "Monster Reborn", "The Forgiving Maiden", "Senju of the Thousand Hands".
• Editing out or re-drawing imagery of cigar(ette)s, smoking pipes, lighters, wine glasses, etc. E.g.: "Spy-C-Spy", "The Six Samurai - Kamon", "Morphtronic Datatron".
• Making imagery of firearms more cartoony, colorful, or toy-like. E.g.: "Infernity Avenger", "Barrel Dragon", "Genex Army".
• Editing or re-drawing horrific imagery of blood or characters that are in the process of being wounded, tortured or executed, re-drawing sacrificial rituals, or substituting horrific character designs for cartoony ones. E.g.: "Battle-Scarred", "Armed Samurai - Ben Kei", "Last Day of Witch", "Dramatic Rescue", "Soul of the Pure", "Ultimate Offering", "Parasite Paracide", "Darksea Float", "Oh Tokenbaum!", "Fiend Comedian".
• Editing or re-drawing imagery of physical pain inflicting or domestic violence. E.g.: "Arrivalrivals", "Maji-Gire Panda".

For more examples, see List of modified card artworks.

Despite the diligent censorship, oversight still occurs for some cards (e.g.: "Cemetary Bomb", "Dreamsprite", "Killer Needle"). In some cases, such as the Anniversary Pack artwork of "Dark Magician Girl", Kazuki Takahashi had refused to let his artworks be censored, thus preventing its release in the TCG. However, in 2020 it was released uncensored as part of the Lost Art Promotion.

Names[]

Logos[]

English, German and European Portuguese[]

French[]

Italian[]

South American Portuguese[]

Spanish[]

References[]