Yu-Gi-Oh! L.A. Art Show Previews Exclusive Blue-Eyes White Dragon Artwork

One of the major reasons Kazuki Takahashi’s Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has had so much staying power over the years is the strong character designs and illustrations. This has helped spark a long running anime franchise, and an arguably more popular trading card game. But what this franchise also sparked was the imaginations of artists all over, and soon they’ll be celebrating the series with a special art show.

Gallery1988 will be holding a special Yu-Gi-Oh! tribute gallery featuring the work over 50 artists inspired by the series, and a new illustration from it featuring a fierce Kaiba and Yugi has gone viral online. Check it out below!

This work by Dan Mumford will reportedly be offered as one of the purchasable prints during the show and features Kaiba and Yugi unleashing the full power of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician. Gallery1988 collaborated with Konami Cross Media NY and over 50 artists for a special show taking place on July 4th in Los Angeles, CA. The gallery will feature limited prints fans can only purchase at the gallery, and by the looks of things it’s going to go fast.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise has some of the strongest and sharpest art in action manga and anime, and fans can see this especially well through the real trading card game. The elaborate designs mixed with the initially easy to grasp mechanics of the game itself helped explode its popularity, keeping it as one of the mainstays of tabletop gaming to this day. Now here’s a new way to celebrate this great art!

Yu-Gi-Oh! was originally created by Kazuki Takahashi for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and ran from September 1996 to March 2004. The series follows Yugi Mutou, a young boy who solves an ancient puzzle and is possessed by the spirit of the Egyptian pharoah. Being skilled at deadly games, the Pharoah goes on to create and solve problems for Yugi based on deadly games of chance.

Two anime adaptations were created for the series, but the one most fans will recognize is Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Duel Monsters was the first arc in the story to focus on the “Duel Monsters” card game and was the first season licensed for an English language release by 4Kids Entertainment. The first season of the series, which fans often dub as “Season 0,” has such deadly games of chance with horrible consequences that fans could not believe it was a part of this series at first.